A Different Shade of Crimson
by AndromedaAI
Summary: Primus gave her a second chance, and she only got a glimpse of what Cybertron was like before the war. The Decepticons didn't give her a choice; and when she manages to get back to Earth, she is in for a whole lot of trouble. Megatron's got a lot more planned for the Earth than he first let on...
1. Death

**So…yeah…blame this on the fact that it was spawned from the last few episodes of **_**Transformers: Prime**_**. They have been so **_**intense**_**! The last one, **_**Darkest Hour**_**, had my heart pounding the whole time! Why do they have to torture us? We have to wait until the spring for the answer to what the Autobots are gonna do! Wheeljack was shot down, Optimus was blown up with the base, the Autobots are scattered across **_**timezones**_**. And what about the **_**Forge of Solus Prime**_**?! And **_**Airachnid**_**?**

**Dunno. So, as a heads up, this will (SPOILERS!) start on Cybertron (next chapter), then come to Earth and take place during the last few episodes. Hope you like!**

* * *

1 – **Death** – 1

I had a normal life. A normal _human_ life. I lived in a small town called Jasper, Nevada, I had a pet cat, I had parents (both a mother and a father), an annoying brother, friends, and family members who were scattered across the globe. I loved to bake and cook and write and draw. I loved to read, spend time with my friends, help them with school (especially history), think about what job I would take on after school, and what schooling I would take at college or university. My life was as normal as a teenager's could get.

But, it didn't stay 'normal' forever. It happened when I got off from my volunteering shift at Jasper's Memorial Hospital.

I glanced over at my supervisor, Nurse June Darby, as I shrugged my sweater on. I was standing in the Acute Care Nurse meeting room as Nurse Darby went over a list of things on her clipboard. On that list were the things I had done today. I had handed out ice waters to the patients in Acute Care, I had changed washcloths and towels, I had set up room 164 for a patient who would be coming in before five PM, and I had made sure that every patient I had come across was comfortable. It was my job.

"Well, Mikaela, it seems like you've been working hard today," she stated.

I nodded. "I feel accomplished, really," I told her. "I'm starting to enjoy this profession, but I don't know which department I'll want to stay in. They're all…_fun_, actually."

Nurse Darby chuckled good naturedly. "That happens to some volunteers. I'm sure you'll find out what kind of nurse you might want to be. You never know," she winked at me, "you might choose to be a nurse like me, who works a little bit in every department."

I nodded again, a small smile appearing on my lips. "Thanks, Mrs. Darby," I said before we finished our conversation and I left the small meeting room. I quickly walked to the front doors and walked outside. I then walked down the sidewalk and began to walk home. My parents were out of town on a business trip, and since I didn't own a mode of transportation (other than by ten-speed bicycle, which I left at home), I walked. It wasn't like Jasper was a dangerous town, it was actually quite safe. That's why my parents allowed me to stay home alone when they were out of town for several days.

As I passed KO Burger, I caught sight of Nurse Darby's son, Jack. I smiled and waved at the raven-haired teen as he climbed onto his blue motorcycle. He waved back at me with a smile on his face before he put on his white street bike helmet and drove away. I was a friend of Jack's, and had been for a couple years now. We were just friends, but close friends. He had become my friend when I was first transferred to this school when my parents decided to move here. He was always there to give me support when I got a bad grade in Math or Social Studies and I thought my mother would freak, or I was nervous, or I was afraid to do something. I was glad I had a friend like Jack.

I continued on and saw my house. I felt like running towards it, and after considering it for a few seconds, I allowed myself to run. I was slow at first, but then I ran faster, pushed myself harder, until I was running flat out. A small breeze whipped my brown hair back off of my shoulders as I approached my house.

But I skidded to a stop when I saw a purple sports car parked in front of my house, by the curb. By its angles and curves, it looked awfully dangerous. It looked almost like a Cadillac Cien, but it looked deadlier…different…almost _alien_. I blinked before I looked away from it and continued my trek towards my house. I didn't dare look at it, and I forced myself to have a straight face so that whoever was sitting inside it (if there was anyone inside it) would not see that I was nervous about its presence.

Of course, I was being completely paranoid. Mikaela, you should lay off those spy novels.

I went to walk up the small pathway that lead up to the front door of my house, but stopped dead in my tracks when I heard the shifting of metal on metal coming from behind me. I didn't want to look back over my shoulder, I really didn't, but I looked over my shoulder anyway, and looked at where the sports car was sitting. Or where it _had_ been sitting.

A small squeak of surprise escaped me as I spotted a pair of large metal feet. I followed the feet up to a pair of legs with my eyes, and then up to a torso, a pair of arms, and a head. I gasped and took a step back at the sight of the large robot. Was the car…the robot? Did it _transform_?

"Are you a 'friend' of the human Jack Darby?" the robot demanded in an almost monotone voice.

I stared up at it with my eyes stretched to an almost impossible width.

"Are you?" it demanded.

Thoughtlessly, I nodded.

I watched as it lifted a hand to the side of its head and pressed something where its ear should have been. "Lord Megatron, I have found the friend of Arcee's pet," I heard the robot say out-loud to someone I couldn't hear. Did he have some kind of built-in communicator? "Do you wish for me to terminate it, sir?" What? I jolted in surprise when I heard this. 'Terminate'? As in cut, sever, destroy? To _kill_? I waited in a breathless silence, my eyes never leaving the robot's emotionless mask. "Of course, Lord Megatron." And with that, the robot took its hand from the side of his head and raised its other arm. I watched with a mix of terror and fascination as that arm suddenly grew a gun of some sort, its hand disappearing.

At that moment, I realized that the giant robot had been ordered by some kind of superior to blast me to bits. At that revelation, I did what a normal, sane, human being did when they were facing what could be the end of their life. I screamed as loud as I could.

When the robot took a half-step back in what I could only guess was surprise at how I was screaming, I turned and made my body move as adrenaline began to course through my veins. I ran.

But I didn't get very far before I heard some sort of _whoosh_, then felt my back heat up before something crashed into my back and sent me flying. Another scream escaped me before I slammed into the ground and rolled a few feet. Once I stopped, I found myself lying on my back. I groaned as I saw the world above me spin a little bit before it straightened out. And then it began to fade.

_What did I do to deserve this? _I asked myself as I felt my body begin to relax against my will. _Why did that giant robot target me of all people?_ I heard the same shifting of metal on metal I heard before I had turned around and had seen the robot before I heard an engine roar before fading away. _Who was RC? Ar…cee? What…did I do to…have any relation with…that person?_ Questions fluttered around my mind, but my thinking was slowing. For some reason, I knew I was dying. _Was it Jack…? He was my…only friend… Of course…I could have been mistaken for…someone else… Jack could have had other…female friends…_

My eyes drooped. My rebellious side screamed in fury and adrenaline weakly flowed through me. I fought to keep my eyes open. I didn't want to die. I wanted to live, I wanted to say goodbye to my parents, to Jack. But I couldn't keep my eyes open, and they dropped shut.

I felt my consciousness fade quickly. It felt like I was falling. I wanted to scream, to hold onto my body. But then everything was silenced and I floated into oblivion.

"_Your time has not yet come, my daughter…"_ a deep voice rumbled.

It startled me a bit, but the voice soothed me, and I was…gone.

* * *

Jack cheered as Arcee brought him home. He got off of her before he went and opened the garage door so that Arcee could park in there for the night. He stretched and his back and shoulders popped several times as he yawned and slowly walked into the house. He disappeared inside with a tired, "Goodnight, Arcee."

He wandered into the living room and was met by his mother, who stood in the middle of the room with her arms crossed and a slightly worried look on her face. Jack looked at her and blinked several times, wondering why he was on the receiving end of that look. He hadn't been doing anything wrong. He had managed to stay away from Vince, and the Autobots had been a little too busy for him and his friends lately. This was the first time he had been with Arcee for a week.

"Jack, have you heard from Mikaela lately?" June Darby asked. "She was supposed to phone me so I knew she was alright."

The raven haired boy blinked again. "I saw her when I left work," he said. "But that was, like, five hours ago."

June sighed. "Her parents entrusted me to keep an eye on her. Let's go check on her. We'll take Arcee," she said. She walked off to get her helmet, and when her back was turned, Jack rolled his blue-grey eyes.

"Yes, Mom," he sighed. He turned and walked out of the room, down the hall, and into the garage. As he walked down the three stairs that bridged the height difference from the door to the ground, he padded the switch that opened the garage door. "C'mon, Arcee, Mikaela hasn't phoned Mom yet, so we have to check up on her."

"Alright, partner," Arcee said, a smile on her voice. She rolled over to Jack in her alt-form as he picked up his helmet from where it had been resting on the work table. He put it on, then got onto the sentient Ducati. June came out of the house only a few minutes later and got on behind her son. Once they were on and were ready, Jack lifted his feet and Arcee rolled out onto the road. Once she had turned right, she took off down the road.

Mikaela lived on the same street as the Darbys did, but it was many houses down. It took only a few minutes to get there, and when they did, silence fell like a thick blanket. Jack and June got off of Arcee, and the Ducati brought out her kick-stand and leaned on it. The two raven-haired humans looked up at the girls house and saw that there were no lights on. Jack looked at his mother. "Maybe she went to bed and forgot to call you?" he suggested.

June stared at him, but before she could say anything, Arcee interrupted. "I…don't think she forgot…" In the cover of the night, Arcee deemed it safe to transform. She knelt down and pointed to something on the sidewalk in front of the girl's house. June and Jack walked up to it and looked down at it. It was hard to see, since the streetlight in front of the home wasn't working, but June fixed that by taking out a pen light. She turned it on and flashed it down on the area Arcee had pointed to. And what they saw shocked both of the humans speechless.

There was a black smudge on the ground. It was definantly caused by a blast from an Energon blaster. June pointed the penlight up the sidewalk a little bit more, and another smudge. She walked up to this one, and raised a hand to her mouth as a look of horror crossed her face. There was nothing there, but there was a necklace laying there with a familiar sliver of Energon (which was encased in a shard of diamond which seemed to have grown over it during the past centuries) adorning it as a pendant. Jack bent down and picked it up, trying desperately not to cry.

"This was the necklace I gave Mikaela when she turned seventeen," Jack admitted shakily.

"My scanners are definantly not as strong as Ratchet's, but I've noticed traces of both Energon and human tissue in that scorch mark you're standing on," Arcee said, gesturing to the mentioned smudge. "It looks like Mikaela was shot by, quite possibly, a Decepticon, and disintegrated."

June couldn't move. She only stared down at the smudge, imagining the brunette she had talked to only a mere five hours ago when she was done her volunteer shift at the hospital. She couldn't believe the girl was gone.


	2. Awake

**Hmm…mixed feelings about this chapter. Seriously, the first chapter came out of **_**nowhere**_**, but now that I look at it, it's like it'll make poor Mikaela's situation worse. Now, I hope you liked this, because that would be great.**

**Thanks **_pokemonjkl, 24, SJSGirl, roxie2120, _**and**_ Starcee138_** for reviewing! They make my day! (And yes, I hope Airachnid blew up!)**

**Vorn: 83 years  
****Mega-cycle: 1 week**

* * *

2 – **Awake** – 2

I didn't know how long I had been unaware, but when someone softly called my name, I slowly became aware of my surroundings. I could feel the ground under me, and I could feel the heat of the sun over me. Though…the ground under me didn't feel like the concrete of the sidewalk I had crashed into. It felt rough and uneven, like I was laying on rocks, or the uneven floor of a cave…

"_Awaken, young one. It is time for you to return to the land of the living."_

At the sound of the deep voice, I opened my eyes. At the sight of the cave-like floor, I slowly drew my knees under me and forced myself up into a sitting position. I looked down at the ground in shock. I was sure I felt sunlight on my back… I looked up and gasped at the sight of what seemed to be walls made of rock, and several glowing balls of different colours hanging from those walls. What was this place…? What were those balls…? I looked down, but when caught sight of myself out of the corner of my eye, I screamed loudly.

I was transparent, and there was one of those glowing balls half submerged _in my chest_! I could look straight through myself, and the turquoise ball of light took up most of my chest. W-what happened to me?

"_I have repaired your body, my daughter. What you see is your soul—your spark. It has taken on your old human form in order to provide you with some familiarity."_

I looked up towards where I thought the voice was coming from, but I saw nothing. I slowly got to my feet and looked around, taking everything in. Where was this place? What was this place? What were those balls?

"_Those are sparks as well. The one by your feet seems to like you."_

I looked down by my feet and saw a yellow ball…uh…_spark_. It nuzzled up to my foot and hummed. That had to be one of the freakiest things that had happened so far. Why did it like me? What did it see in me? I bent down and picked up the ball, which hummed louder in which I could only guess was happiness. But as I looked at it, I was shocked when I was mentally accosted by an image of a yellow robot-baby…thing with huge blue eyes. Silently, I heard a name. _Bumblebee…_

"_The spark has introduced itself to you. Someday, a frame will form around his spark and he'll become and infant, or in the Cybertronian culture and language—a sparkling. His name is Bumblebee."_

My eyes were wide as I looked at the spark in my hands. Cautiously, I made sure he was resting in my hands and that my fingers wouldn't dig into him. For some reason, a maternal instinct washed over me, and I just wanted to hug the spark. But I didn't know if that would be detrimental to the spark's health, so I didn't hug him.

"_He wishes that you'd become his carrier, even though it is not the time for him to leave this cavern. He will not be able to leave for several vorns. He will be lonely in here, so maybe…"_

"What is a…'carrier'?" I asked, not looking up from Bumblebee's spark.

There was a small silence. _"A carrier is a femme-creator, a mother,"_ the voice supplied.

I stared at the spark in wonder. To have something look up at me like that made my heart flutter in some kind of joy. To have something walk up to me and say "mommy?" would make me positively melt. If I said yes to this, even though I was still confused as to what had happened to me, it would be like some sort of adoption. I always wanted to adopt. I had a lot of questions, like: what did the voice do my body? Was it 'repaired'? What would happen to me if I became this spark's mother?

"_You are a rather young femme. You have absolutely nothing to fear. Becoming his carrier would create a special link between the two of you which would allow you to feel his emotions and allow you to speak with him, and vice versa even if you're not standing next to him."_

The blue ball in my chest…the _spark_…hummed painfully and reached for the yellow spark in my hands. My mind whirled painfully. I was just being thrown into this! Did the voice even care? Yes, he fixed my body after it was damaged by a gunshot from a humungous transforming _robot_, but now he wanted me to bond with this 'sparkling' because it was lonely. How was this thing even _self-aware_ yet? For about half a minute, I wanted to tip over backwards, crack my head against the uneven ground and knock myself unconscious. But I doubted I could even do that, since the voice basically said I was wandering around as a _ghost_!

I felt like was on the edge of a full-blown panic attack.

"_It is basically only the title of carrier that you obtain when you choose to become a carrier. All sparklings come from the Well of AllSparks, which is this cavern. You become his carrier; you become one of the possible two guardians he can have."_ There was a sigh._ "Please make your decision. It is time to return you to your body."_

The voice managed to stall the incoming panic attack. The voice almost sounded…I don't know…impatient? Well, I _was_ stalling…

Before I could even try to think of a way to get around this, tendrils of light stretched out from the center of my spark and reached for Bumblebee's spark. I watched with wide eyes as tendrils of light stretched from the yellow spark as well and mingled with mine. They wrapped around each other until they merged into a long white cord that looked like it was tethered to both of our sparks. I watched with fascination as it disappeared from view. "What…was…that?" I managed to wheeze out, reaching and touching the area where the cord had been. I felt nothing…

"_You are now Bumblebee's carrier. The sparks within the Well of AllSparks became aware for this short time when you came here. They have enjoyed your company."_

I smiled when I felt the feeling of fondness from, I could only guess, Bumblebee as I hummed in agreement as to what the voice had just said. I could _feel_ him. It made me happy, and I managed to show that happiness to the spark by sending it down the bond that I now had with the spark. This was so weird…but wonderful as well. I was sort of like a mother, but I was also a guardian. I think I was more of a mother than a guardian.

After I had finished thinking about what I was to the spark now, it slowly flew (or more like hovered) from my hands and attached itself to the wall under a cluster of sparks. For a second, I felt a twinge of sadness that he had left me to go back to waiting in sleep for the time he would leave 'the Well of AllSparks', but then I thought about my body. That's what I had been waiting for the whole time. My body. It had been repaired. I could go back to it now.

I smiled one last time that the yellow spark before I got to my feet and looked up, not really having any other ideas as to where I should look. What next?

"_It is time for you to return to your body, young one. Come, it is right in front of you."_

I blinked in surprise when the form of something definantly five times larger than myself appeared in front of me. It was lying down, unmoving, and by the light shining down from the sparks, its eyes were closed.

"Who's this…? That's…definantly not me…" I said.

"_On the contrary. It is you."_

I was horrified. That was…_me_? Suddenly, I felt like I wanted to cry, scream, and destroy something all at once. This wasn't fair! This was what the voice called 'repairing my body', but I called it 'changing it'! "What the _heck _did you do to me?!" I screamed.

"_If you went onto the surface of Cybertron as a human, you'd be terribly out of place. I had to change you so that you would fit in."_ there was a small pause. _"The beings that call Cybertron home are not human. Your people would call them robots, machines."_

I stood there, going over this. I should have been freaking out about the coolness of all of this. I had been a huge si-fi junkie before this happened (thanks to my mother allowing me to watch _Stargate SG-1_ when I was a kid), so the thought of turning into a robot was cool. There was no turning back; it had gone all too far. I couldn't go back to Earth now. There was no way I would have been able to.

"_Touch your body and you'll return to the land of the living."_

A shiver escaped me as I glanced up before I looked down at 'my' body again. I walked slowly towards it and reached my hand out to it. My fingertips lightly touched it, and for a second, I thought about how I could see through my and at the metal that covered my body now. But in a flash, I found myself lying down, and unable to see anything.

Drowsiness overcame me, and I felt myself begin to fall asleep…

"_My daughter, when you awake, I will not be here. You are now a full grown femme."_

"What…is your name?" I asked sleepily.

"_My name is Primus."_

That was the last thing I heard before I sunk into the oblivion known as sleep.

* * *

What seemed like an eternity later, I woke up.

It was funny to say the least. It was like how I woke up when I was a human. I expected it to be different. Though, I seemed to be looking at some kind of screen… Something inside me called it a "HUD screen". What did "HUD" stand for? And what was all this information I saw on it? I focused on the letters, finding them alien, but what was weird was…I could understand what the letters meant, as if it was just plain English! This was fascinating. Maybe being a…er…Cybertronian…was it?...wasn't going to be so bad.

_Let's see…can I move anything? _I wondered. I started with my hands. I slowly wiggled all five fingers on both my left and right hands. I then tried my feet, which felt big and bulky, but I could lift those too. Soon, I figured out that I could sit up and get to my feet. Cool, I could control this body just like I could control my human body.

Once on my feet, I looked around before something inside me told me that I had to climb up out of this place. That seemed reasonable, since, when I looked up, there was a long tunnel that seemed to lead up to the surface, and at the end, what could only be a hatch of some sort, was open and letting light flood down into the Well of AllSparks.

I walked over to the closest wall, and began to climb. Back when I was human, I had tried to rock-climb a couple times, but epically failed because of my fear of heights. The last time I had done it, I had only gotten up three feet before I couldn't figure out how to go any higher, and then I looked down and got scared. Yeah…I was _really_ scared of heights.

As I continued to climb, I forced myself not to look down. If I looked down, my legs would lock up and I wouldn't be able to go any higher. I briefly wondered about the voice, "Primus", as I got nearer and nearer to the opening up top. _I have to distract myself_, I realized as the urge to look down got stronger and stronger that higher I climbed. So I thought about my mother and father, and wondered what would happen when they found that I was no longer on Earth. They would probably cry and throw a memorial service as soon as my brother got home from the boarding school he was attending in Chicago.

I thought about all the interests I had, and smiled when I remembered _Doctor Who_, and _Star Trek_. I had been interested in more, but I couldn't quite remember. My mind was on too many things, like trying to get out of the Well of AllSparks, getting distracted by my "HUD screen" (and how I knew it was that in the first place), and the fact that I desperately wanted to look down by instinct. I was just not letting myself.

Before I knew it, I had reached the top, my arms and legs aching profusely. I was glad I didn't have to do it again (while I wondered if I'd have to) as I shakily heaved myself out of the entrance and laid down beside it, too exhausted to get to my feet right away. Goodness, did sparklings have to climb out of that? How did they do it?

I laid there, taking deep breaths in order to cool my body down, which was so hot that it hurt, as my ears picked up the sound of approaching footsteps. Slowly, so that I could conserve energy, I let myself reach down and touch the ground. My dainty metal hands brushed over the ground without making a sound. The ground felt like it was made of metal.

The footsteps grew louder until they stopped beside me. Attentively, I opened my eyes and looked up. They widened when I took in the sight of a tall red robot with chrome trim, and a robot that had metal on him that was such a dark blue that it was almost black (I also noted the almost glowing silver runes running down the innermost edge of both of his shoulderplates). As I looked them over, something in my mind corrected me. They were mechs, not robots, like I was a femme. So did that mean that I was a girl robot and they were boy robots? It seemed like it.

Slowly, I got to my pedes and stood before them. By looking at the both of them, they looked extremely important, so I got down on one knee and bowed my head. And I waited for acknowledgement.

"Young femme, you may rise," a voice full of authority commanded.

Hesitantly, I nodded my head before I got to my feet. I straightened and looked up at them cautiously. They towered over me, making me feet so small. I didn't dare to say anything, just in case I said something wrong.

"What is your designation, young femme?" the red mech asked.

I looked up at him, not sure what to call myself. But then I heard it, like a whisper: _Wavelength_. "M-my designation is…Wavelength, sir," I replied shakily.

"A fitting name for a triple-changer," the other mech said, his voice full of wisdom.

I looked at him with wide eyes. "T-triple-changer?" I stuttered.

"You do not know what you are?" the red mech asked, incredulous. I shook my head. He narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

The dark blue mech gently touched the red mech's shoulder. "Because she climbed out of the Well of AllSparks, Sentinel. The Covenant of Primus foretold her coming," he said placidly.

'Sentinel' shot the dark blue mech a glare, but said nothing, leaving the dark blue mech to explain to me what a triple-changer was. "A triple-changer is a type of Cybertronian that is gifted with both a land-mode and an air-mode. You can drive and fly." I glanced over my shoulder and saw that two large wings were sticking out of where my shoulder-blades would have been. Along the top of each wing was a thick, turquoise blue line that seemed to glow. I looked down at my feet and saw that there was a thick glowing turquoise band that ran around the top of each large metal boot I was wearing, acting like a cuff, much like the glowing turquoise cuffs on my wrists. Mounted on the back of each boot was a wheel.

"What else does the Covenant foretell, Alpha Trion?" Sentinel asked hotly.

"That she will join a caste after she has had time to choose. She's not drastically important for anything, though I have a feeling that she will contribute to something during the rising darkness I cannot quite see," 'Alpha Trion' replied.

"How will her decision come to be?" Sentinel inquired.

"She will experience a few mega-cycles in both the Medical Caste and the Data Caste."

* * *

**Yes, I'm bending the rules here slightly. Well, it does say on the tfwiki, that once a Cybertronian learns how to transform, they are (I think) allowed to choose a caste. Though, I might be wrong… And yes, in my story **_**A Cloak and Dagger**_** there's a femme named Wavelength as well, but she is not the same femme. This was the story I was going to originally use the name in.**


	3. Fully Mobile

**I realize I made a mistake—when Cybertronians (in the **_**Prime**_** 'verse) come from the Well of AllSparks, they are **_**assigned**_** to a caste. It doesn't mention if they get to **_**choose**_**, though. So I'm still going the way I have planned this story to be :)**

**Thanks** _SJSGirl, Dragonmaster789, Anonymous BW FG, pokemonjkl,_** and**_ thunder angel13_** for reviewing! I'm so grateful!**

**Vorn: 83 years  
****Mega-cycle: 1 week**

* * *

3 – **Fully Mobile** – 3

Sentinel hadn't looked too pleased by the fact that Alpha Trion has some sort of say in this situation. I sensed some sort of animosity between the two that was confirmed when Sentinel ordered Alpha Trion to return to a place called 'The Hall of Records'. I watched as the dark blue mech walked away. I felt kind of sad, since I was starting to like Alpha Trion. I didn't really want to be left with Sentinel. I felt nervous in this…mech's presence.

When Alpha Trion was gone, I turned to face Sentinel. I didn't speak, I didn't move. I just waited for the mech to speak. I had a strong feeling that he liked to apply the 'don't speak unless spoken to' rule. So no words left my mouth until he spoke to me. He didn't say anything for several seconds.

"Wavelength," he sighed. He looked down into my eyes. "The first thing you must do before you can enter a caste is learn how to transform. Come, we will go to the facility where you shall learn how to transform." I simply nodded before he turned and began walking towards a large building that wasn't built too far from the opening to the Well of AllSparks. It didn't look big, but as I jogged after the red and chrome mech, I wondered how many Cybertronians could be contained inside it.

And then I wondered who Sentinel was in relation to this planet. He seemed to be some kind of leader. What kind of leader was he? A tyrant? A peaceful king?

My thoughts were cut short, even when they didn't have much time to fester, when we reached the building. Sentinel entered first, and I followed him closely. My wings twitched in curiosity when I took in the large room that seemed to be the only room in the building. I studied everything, taking every detail of what was around me. This room was so alien and familiar at the same time, because it reminded me, sort of, of the gyms in the schools I used to go to. This place, even though it had none of the features, brought back memories of the gym in the school I had gone to before I moved to Jasper. The floor was grey, the walls white, and the roof navy blue.

"The training that happens in this building is run by Cybertronians that work in the medical caste. Though a high caste, the individuals that work in it tend to mingle because of the fact that they make sure that everybot is in top heath…"

"You say that as if it is a bad thing," I remarked as we came to a stop in the middle of the room. "Why?"

"In order to keep the peace we have today, the different castes cannot legally mingle—except for the medical caste."

I didn't comment about that. I only nodded as I thought about how the 'castes' sounded like something out of a science-fiction novel. But of course, the planet I stood upon looked like came out of a science-fiction movie or TV show. Everything was so different, so alien. Though, I wasn't necessarily human anymore.

My thoughts were shattered when a stark white mech that was close to my height walked into the room, holding what could only be a Cybertronian-sized iPad. He was typing something on it with his sharp fingers as he walked up to us and turned to face me. He looked at me through a thin pair of rose coloured shades that allowed me to see his eyes before he looked back down at the iPad wannabe and continued to type. After a few more minutes of what I could only assume was assessing, the medic put the iPad away and straightened.

"I am Default," he said in an almost monotone voice that carried a hint of what I would call a British accent if I had been living back on Earth. "And I will be your tutor on the basics of transforming."

I nodded in confirmation as I took in his features. His face was a light grey, and his helmet sported a red chevron in the forehead area. Sticking out of his back were two wing-like things that were nothing like mine. His looked like the doors of a car. I was brought out of this when Default cleared his throat. "Are you ready to begin, Wavelength?" he asked.

I nodded again as I noticed that Sentinel had disappeared and that I was now standing in the middle of room with a mech I didn't know. I glanced down at my black…metal (or was it armor?) before I looked back up at Default. "What's first?" I asked.

He smiled. "Good to see you being so enthusiastic about learning how to transform," he said, his voice changing from the monotone tone it had been when Sentinel was around to a tone that sounded a bit more lively, making him sound not like the half-drone I was beginning to think he was. "The first step: check your HUD." He reached up tapped the side of his head. I did what he said and looked inward at the screen which I had seen when I woke up. "See the icons in the bottom-right corner?" he asked. At my nod, he continued. "Those are your forms. Your robot-form, aka your bipedal-form, and your two vehicle-forms, since you're a triple-changer."

"Choose one of the vehicle-form icons, and you'll naturally transform, though it might be hard to do it the first time. Not everybot is the same."

I focused on the ground mode icon and managed to select it. It was strange to have a mind that acted like a computer. Suddenly, pieces of the armor I was wearing began to shift as I crouched down and collapsed into the form of an alien vehicle. Default clapped enthusiastically at my success. But I thought it wasn't a big deal. It must have just been habit in order to make the trainees feel like they accomplished something.

"Utilizing one's alt-mode or modes enables you to cross distances faster. It is a useful ability for one to have once they enter a caste," Default said. "Which caste do you think they'll assign you to? Do you know what castes there are?"

I liked how friendly Default was. He seemed like a chatty bot when Sentinel wasn't around. "I'm going to have the chance to choose between the Data caste and the Medical caste."

Default's eyes widened behind his transparent visor. "They're letting you _choose_?" he blinked a few times. "What made Sentinel allow that?"

"Alpha Trion said something about 'The Covenant of Primus' foretelling my coming, so I'm getting some kind of special treatment…"

"Alpha Trion?" At this, he took a deep breath as if to steady himself. "He never accompanies Sentinel to the Well of AllSparks! Ever! It's usually one of the council because of the fact that Sentinel banished Alpha Trion to the Hall of Records in Iacon vorns ago!"

By the way Default was acting; I had the feeling that rules had been stretched when I crawled up onto this planet. It made my spark twitch uncomfortably. "Can…can we just get on with the training, please?" I asked quietly.

* * *

By the end of the training, I felt like I had made a friend in Default, and I hoped that I would meet him again someday. I met Sentinel outside the training facility, and was lead towards the transport that would take us to a different place. As we walked, Sentinel told me of the town that was situated around the Well of AllSparks. It was called Praxus. For some reason, I had a feeling that I would be coming back here someday. And that I wouldn't be coming back here for fun.

I tried not to get distracted by the readings I was getting from my wings because of all the sensors that were on them. I tried to focus only on Sentinel as he led me onto a transport. I stood quietly beside him as the door closed and the transport began to move. I wanted to ask where we were going, but I decided to keep my mouth shut.

The ride was long, and my eyes began to droop. I tried to fight the feeling of drowsiness so that I wouldn't accidentally lean on Sentinel if I fell asleep. It didn't help that the slight vibrations from the engines was lulling me to sleep. At one point, I almost fell asleep standing up, but I realized this so I pinched some of the wires under my armor and slapped my face a couple of times in order to wake me up. Sentinel chuckled at my efforts as I locked my eyes open and shook my head in order to rid myself of the need for sleep.

Eventually, after what seemed like several hours of standing in the same place, the transport stopped and the door opened. I was still awake by that time, but just barely. I didn't take much in as I was lead into a building were several bots sat at stations where they did their jobs. I followed Sentinel as he took me to an elevator, and was surprised when the doors closed behind me and the elevator began to rise before I had even stopped moving. I guess Sentinel was in a hurry.

At the top, the doors opened and Sentinel hastily ushered me out. I could only squeak as I was steered towards a door, and then left there. I looked over my shoulder and saw that Sentinel had walked back to the elevator and now it was descending. I gaped for a few moments in shock before I looked back at the door. Sentinel had just ditched me. In the Hall of Records. In a city I didn't know. What a doorknob!

With a sigh, I knocked on the door, guessing that it lead to Alpha Trion's office. There was no answer, though, making me wonder if he wasn't inside. I wasn't one to intrude into someone's personal space, so I walked off to the side and sat down. I then lay down on my right side and curled up into a fetal position. So much had happened today. I had crawled up from the Well of AllSparks, met two mechs: Sentinel and Alpha Trion, I learned to transform into both of my vehicular forms in a town called Praxus with the help of a mech named Default, and now I was here. Alone.

Not like I hadn't been alone before. I had been left at home alone so many times back when I was a human, and I had been fine with it, but that was because I had a friend that lived on the same street and my parents were usually on the same continent. But here, I had no friends (except for Default—though he was back in Praxus), and my parents were on a different planet.

With that on the forefront of my mind, I fell asleep.

* * *

Sometime later, I woke up and found myself in a sitting position. After blinking a few times, I realized that I was sitting on a chair which turned out to be very comfortable once I had become fully aware. I blinked a few more times before I glanced around, realizing that I was in an office. But who's office? My eyes continued to drift, and soon my question was answered.

My eyes landed on the dark blue mech that had come to see me at the edge of the Well of AllSparks.

"Alpha Trion!" I exclaimed, gripping the armrests of the chair while leaning forward, my eyes wide. I was in his office?!

I felt my hands go slightly numb with shock as I glanced around nervously, unsure about what I was allowed to do. But my fear wasn't necessary, because after a few minutes of tense silence, there was a soft chuckle. It was deep, and it sounded like it was full of wisdom. It caused me to look at the mech sitting behind the desk. "There is nothing for you to be nervous about, young femme," the mech said lightly.

I wringed my hands together, not quite able to calm my nerves. "S-sorry, sir," I stuttered. "So m-much…has happened since I…I…"

"Onlined?"

I nodded. "Onlined…I've been seriously thrown for a loop. Uh…there's so much to take in. Um…I'm not even sure what our certain…_body parts_…are called…"

Alpha Trion simply smiled at me. "That you will learn eventually," he said.

I was quiet for a few moments. "So…if I am to work here…what am I supposed to do?" I asked quietly.

"You will be assigned your own station, and there you will process any information that comes over the grid. It's not a difficult task."


	4. Data, Medics, and Decepticons

**Sorry for the wait. Had writers block. But guess what? This chapter it HUGE! 5,508 words huge. After I had broken down the block, the words just seemed to flow from me. This is the longest chapter I have ever written for a multi-chapter fic. Amazing. Personal achievement!**

**So, explanation for this chapter. I didn't want to dwell too much on the data caste, so you'll only get about a few paragraphs on what she experienced there, if that is fine with you. Medical caste on the other hand? Lots of information. There are a lot of time skips in this chapter, just so I can bring you to the war faster. And Knock Out appears! Though, he isn't like the Knock Out we know until the war starts. OOC in your eyes, probably. But it's not like every Decepticon you know starts out like an evil monster. He grew up in Iacon, not Kaon (in this fic). So sorry in advance if he rubs you the wrong way.**

**Thanks**_ SJSGirl, Taboo22, _**and**_ Dragonmaster789_** for reviewing!**

**Now, on with the chapter!**

**Megacycle = 1 week  
****Stellar-cycle = 1 year  
****Klik = 1 minute  
****Orn = 13 days  
****Orbital-cycle = 1 day  
****Nano-klick = 1 second**

**Danniluk = Mother  
****Opiluk = Father**

* * *

4 – **Data, Medics, and Decepticons** – 4

I was sat down at a station like all the other ones at the Hall of Records, and was quickly taught by a mech more monotone than Default had been (when he had been faking it) on how to sort data. I quickly got the hang of it, since the station worked like the laptop I had when I was human—but this was more advance. I plugged into the station with a retractable USB plug that came from my wrist, and listened to recorded debates from scientists in a place called Crystal City.

It was fascinating to say the least. I had been learning about something similar to what they (the scientists in the recording I was currently listening to) were talking about now back just before all this had happened.

"Perceptor, if I mix this carbon dioxide with helium, will it explode? I'm not anxious to find out…"

The owner of the voice was an unknown and not very famous scientist named Quickfix. He was working under Perceptor in the study of metal—like what kinds would explode when a certain substance came into contact with it or not.

I came across several articles I found intriguing later, but after a while, this job lost its…I dunno…it became stagnant. It was not interesting for me anymore. Huh, so I must have not been cut out to be a librarian.

The few mega-cycles (which I came to believe was the Cybertronian version of a 'week') passed, and I came to the end of the Data-caste trial-run. I didn't mind the job, really, but I would have considered it as a part-time job more than a full-time job. Too bad, there was no such thing as a part-time job on this planet. It was against the law.

I liked being plugged into a station all day, every day, but I didn't like the fact that I couldn't use the station to do anything other than watch/listen and file data away. Had the Cybertronians ever heard of _video games_? In this society, anything that resembled video games was probably forgotten back when the caste system was constructed. That kind of made me angry at Sentinel, since through my time sorting data allowed me to learn about when the caste system was constructed, why it had been, and who had done it.

Those thoughts quickly left my mind when I found myself standing before the door of Alpha Trion's office. I blinked my turquoise eyes a few times before I raised my right hand and knocked politely on the door. I waited a few seconds before the door slid open on its own when Alpha Trion uttered, "Enter."

I walked into the office slowly, meekly. I cast my gaze around before it came to rest on the mech I had come to see. At his nod, I walked forward and sat down in the chair that sat before the desk. I couldn't help but allow my wings to droop. Though the job was boring, I would miss Alpha Trion. In a strange sense, I regarded him as a…grandfather. I had never had a grandfather when I was human.

"You've come to tell me that the mega-cycles that you were to be here have ended, haven't you, young femme?" he said knowingly.

I nodded slowly and looked down. "Yeah…" I breathed in slowly through my nose. My spark twisted almost painfully, making me want to cry. The tears pressed against the backs of my eyes. "This place is…homey…but I don't think I'd be able to work here. Sure, I'll miss the bots I met here, but I don't feel like I'd be…any help here…"

"It's quite alright, youngling. The choice is yours."

The tears threatened to escape. "But I'll never see those bots again…" I sighed. "Sentinel said that bots from different castes couldn't interact."

"In time, you will be able to see those bots again, young femme."

* * *

After I had said goodbye, a couple of bots known as Elite Guards came and lead me down to the maglev station in the center of Iacon. When the maglev train came, we boarded and were whisked away to another part of Iacon where I was dropped off at the station and left there. I was confused, but I didn't have the chance to question it before I realized where I was.

The station was built into the facility were most medical bots were stationed/lived. And I could tell from the sign that hung over the opening that must have lead into the main room of the facility.

It was strange how I could read Cybertronian. I mused over this as I walked through the opening and into the facility. I didn't say a word as I looked around and took in how quiet it was in the facility. And how _white_ everything was. The floors were white, the walls were white, and the only things that weren't white (that I could see) was the navy-blue ceiling, the grey reception desk, and what could only be the Cybertronian version of a coffee room, which I could see through an open doorway. It looked to have soft blue walls, a darker blue floor, and a set of chairs and a table that were a warm grey. What was it with greys, whites, and blues?

I walked up to the reception desk hoping to figure out what I had to do. I felt lost, and I believed that my armor colour made me stick out like a sore thumb in this main room, since I was black and the room was a stark white. I shifted nervously as I waited for the femme behind the desk to take notice of me. I tapped my feet nervously and clicked my fingers together before the femme looked up at me and regarded me with cool grey optics. "Can I help you?" she asked with a stiff voice.

I nodded. "Yeah. I have been appointed to be a medic, but I don't have any training. Do you think you can take me to my supervisor?"

The femme rolled her eyes with a huff. She then pointed behind her, at a hallway. "Down the hall, turn left, and at the first door on the right, you'll find your supervisor. He's in there teaching his first student already. I don't know how he'll react to having another student suddenly walk in on him."

I mentally groaned. "Have a good orbital-cycle to you too," I said sarcastically before I walked down the hall, the turned left, and reached the first door on the right. I pressed an ear to the door and listened through the metal to see how many were inside. I heard one person talking and when he stopped, I heard another voice, who answered what seemed to be a question.

After I had judged that there was indeed only two bots in there, I took a step back and knocked on the door. For a few seconds, or nano-klicks as I had come to know them as, nothing happened. But then the door slid open to reveal a small room big enough for two Cybertronian-sized student desks with chairs to face a Cybertronian teacher desk with a few Cybertronian-sized feet between them. I stepped forward and looked at the mech standing behind the teacher desk and took in his red armor that was streaked with white stripes. I then looked at the mech's only student. My optics widened slightly as my Cybertronian body wanted to repeat the puberty phase I experienced when I turned thirteen.

The mech's student was also a mech. My computer-like mind instantly computed that if the student had been human, he'd of looked like a seventeen year old. He was young, like me. His armor was blood red, a red more rich than the almost brick-red the teacher was wearing. His eyes were black with blue rings acting as irises, and his face, instead of being the standard light grey, was white. His helmet was designed in a way that made me think of wet hair frozen in a way after a strong and cold wind blasted someone from the front, and on his chin, there was a tiny black piece of metal that made me think of a goatee.

I turned to look back at the teacher as both the teacher and the student turned to look at me. I smiled sheepishly. "H-hello…" I stuttered. "I am Wavelength. I'm here to start my medical training."

"I have been informed that I'd be receiving a new student. It is a pleasure to meet you," the teacher said. "My designation is First Aid." He gestured to the student. "And this is Knock Out." The student waved with a slight smile.

I waved back. "You may sit at the desk beside his, Wavelength," First Aid told me. I nodded to him before I walked over to the desk and sat down behind it. I folded my hands together and rested them on the desktop. I watched as First Aid took out an iPad wanna-be (which I had quickly learned was called a "datapad") from his desk before he walked over to my desk and set it down on it. "This is the beginning of Knock Out's second megacycle in medical training. You'll have to catch up so I can train you evenly." I nodded in understanding.

Quickly booting the datapad up, having learned how to do that when I tried out the Data caste, I glanced at the table of contents before delving in. After becoming a Cybertronian, I realized how hungry for information I had become. I know the Data caste would have been a perfect place to satisfy my want for info, but it had quickly gotten monotone for me. I had been interested in becoming a nurse, though, back when I was human.

The first topic I read was about how young sparklings were raised and schooled. According to what caste they were in, they attended an Academy for that caste. There, they learned about their anatomy, mathematics, science (mostly the medical and scientific castes learned this, but the engineering caste took advantage of Physics), how to take care of themselves, etc. It was so similar to a human school that I couldn't help but shutter. I saw Knock Out glance at me when the shutter caused my backplates to rattle against each other slightly.

The next topic I read was about the different anaesthetics a medic could use to knock a bot out.

Even though I was already missing the bots I had met at the Hall of Records, I knew that I was going to have a future in the medical caste.

* * *

Megacycles flew by as I learned about Cybertronian anatomy, and how to repair bots who got hurt in their day to day lives. My feet were actually called 'pedes'. Hands were 'servos'; the head was called a helm; eyes were optics; ears were audios or audio receptors. There was so much information to take in, but that didn't really hinder me. My medical skill was gaining slowly as First Aid had us practice on broken pieces of machinery. I was very meticulous, so my repaired machines looked just as repaired as Knock Out's, but he had more skill than I did and he was always done before me.

Soon a stellar-cycle, which was a Cybertronian year, ticked by. I was shocked to find that I had been learning in this place for that much time. We were getting better and better at fixing things and understanding how a living Cybertronian worked, so now we were going out on house-calls. Though, I was Knock Out's assistant at the moment. He was the more skilled of the two of us—still.

Even though so much time had passed since I knew myself as a human, I hadn't forgotten what it was like to be a human. To be shorter than I was now, to be freer than I was now, to have a mother and a father again, to know I had at least one friend, and to pet my cat again… I missed my old life, no matter how cool it was to be a living robot. Knock Out and I got to know each other, but I didn't know if we would consider each other friends. It made me realize how much I missed Jack.

Sometimes I had dreams of what happened in the past. I'd dream of my mother and my father and of my brother. The times Jack would comfort me if I got a low grade on a test. How Mrs. Darby fussed over me like a second mother when Mom and Dad were on business trips. My spark would twitch painfully at the memories. I could never go back to that…

"Wavelength, are you coming? First Aid wants us to pay a visit to a wealthy mech in the high-end district of Iacon. Says the mech injured himself during a turbo-fox hunt," Knock Out said from where he was standing near the door of the "classroom" (as I had come to call it).

"Oh…oh! S-sorry," I said, shaking my head a little to clear my thoughts.

"You had spaced out there," Knock Out smirked. "Somethin' on your processor?"

I closed my eyes…optics…and shook my head. "Just thinking over what we've done over the last stellar-cycle. We've…done a lot of…stuff."

He nodded. "That we have," he said cheerfully. "We almost know everything a medic needs to know. Just a few more orns and we'll be official medics!"

I beamed. "Yeah, it's so exciting. I can't wait."

"Then, are you coming with me? This is a test, you know. Though, the patient won't know that," he chuckled with a wink.

That was something I had noticed during the time I had known Knock Out. He was such a flirt. As we worked together building and fixing things, he would always comment on what I was doing with either a wink or a smirk. I don't know why he did it, but he only did it to me. He didn't flirt to the snarky femme behind the reception desk, or any of the female patients he checked up on with the help of First Aid. Maybe it was because he knew me since we were being taught under the same mech. I had no idea.

I grinned as I got to my pedes. I followed him out of the room and all the way down to the maglev station. The trip to the high-class area of Iacon was short since the medical facility wasn't too far from it. We stepped of the maglev and onto the platform before we walked down onto the road and made our way to the patient's home.

"So…what's the mech's designation?" I asked.

"Mirage."

I grinned again. "Sounds like a mysterious one. Wonder why he got _that_ designation."

"I managed to catch one of the turbo-fox hunts before the data clerks removed it from the Grid. Mirage got his name because of his uncanny ability to either make himself invisible, or to project holograms. He uses those abilities to outsmart the turbo-foxes so that his fellow hunters can corner them," Knock Out explained.

My mouth made a small 'O' shape in realization. "I get it, I get it," I said as we turned and stopped at the gate of what looked to be a super-huge estate on the very edge of the city. "So this is where Mirage lives?" I asked.

Knock Out nodded. "According to First Aid's directions, yes." He frowned slightly. "You'll have to be careful, though. He still lives with his carrier and sire, along with his sister and his brother. The rich tend to be very flirtatious when they see a suitable femme or mech walk into the room," he explained as we were admitted.

As we began to walk up the long path leading up to the mansion sitting in the middle of the property, I wiggled my eyebrows playfully. "Are you saying that _you're_ a 'suitable mech'?"

He rested a servo on his chest. "Why, _of course_," he chuckled. "But I'm also saying," he dropped his servo, "that you're a 'suitable femme'."

I covered my mouth with a servo as my optics widened in shock. My cheekplates even turned a shade of blue as I blushed. "You _flirt_!" I exclaimed, trying to regain my composure as we neared the front door. Thankfully, I managed to remove the blue tint in my cheekplates and straighten my composure before we stopped on the front doorstep of the mansion. But what Knock Out had said still frazzled me. Had he just said that I was _beautiful_?

After Knock Out rang the doorbell, we only had to wait a few seconds before the door was opened by a small black droid that I could only guess was the "butler" of this mansion. We stepped inside after we wiped our pedes, and I couldn't help but glance around.

The main room was lavishly decorated. In my studies, I had learned that the now (almost) dead Space Bridge used to connect to several different worlds. It seemed that a "Jungle Planet" had been explored, and I could see some of the souvenirs from that exploration pinned to the wall on the left. What looked to be giant-sized tiger skins of all colours decorated it like curtains. It was actually quite pretty.

Knock Out tapped me on the shoulder, regaining my attention after it had seemingly wandered. After smiling at my apologetic look, he led me up to the level where the main living quarters seemed to be. I stopped at the entrance of the quarters though, when I got a good look at what it was like in there.

There was a soft flooring, like carpet—but for bots, and the decorations were so lavish that felt it made me feel inferior. Even when I had been a human, I had never lived or stepped foot in such a beautiful place. Knock Out had already walked into the main room, but I couldn't bring myself to follow him. I suddenly felt very shy.

"Oh, have you come alone to fix my son, young medic?" a melodious voice suddenly asked.

"No, madam. Another medic-in-training has come with me in order to repair your son's arm," I heard Knock Out explain. "Are you coming, Wavelength?" I sighed and rubbed the turquoise prong/crest thing that was attached to my forehead and stuck up past the top of my helm.

Slowly, I walked into the room and glanced about, nervous. This wasn't the environment I was used to. I hadn't grown up as a rich kid, I had never stepped foot within a mansion while anyone had been living in it…

"Oh! Isn't she a pretty little thing?" the same melodious voice commented. I looked around and spotted the owner of the voice. It was a tall femme dressed in white armor. I only came up to her shoulder. She had a prong/crest like mine, but it was black and on its base, and level with the eyebrows, was an aqua-blue gem. I'd seen many of the femme medics wear those. It was like a piece of jewellery. And no matter what caste they belonged to, most of the femmes I saw wore gems like that. The only ones I didn't see wearing them (as a mass), were the ones from the really low castes. I'd always fancied them, since it looked like I was able to wear one.

When I registered what the femme had said, I blushed and looked down. I was an average femme. I was not spectacularly pretty like the femme who had commented on my looks.

"Danni…" a feminine voice sighed. "You're embarrassing her."

I glanced to the side and saw another femme who looked to be a little bit shorter than me. She had mint-green armor and a white prong/crest. She was also wearing a gem, but this one was emerald green. The femme glanced at me with a sympathetic look.

"Oops!" the older femme said. "Sorry, dear."

**::What a caring danniluk,::** I said to Knock Out using my medic communicator. Not all bots had a communicator. Medics needed them in order to talk about confidential information without others overhearing.

**::It's good to have a caring carrier,::** Knock Out explained. **::My carrier and sire shunned me when they found out the government had chosen me to become a medic.::**

**::Hmm…that's cruel, Knock Out.::**

"So, Madam Windbreeze, which room is your son in? We must fix his arm and return to the medical facility," Knock Out said out loud.

We were given directions to Mirage's quarters, since he was old enough to have his own 'apartment'. I followed Knock Out up to the apartment and didn't say a word as we walked in. We found Mirage sitting in his "sitting room", staring out into space. He was probably accessing the Grid. There were several…interesting…things that you could find there. Sensing our presence, though, he blinked a few times and turned to look at us. It also gave us a view of how badly damaged his arm was. I winced at the exposed wire and torn armor.

"I had heard that there would be two medics coming to see me, but I never imagined that it would be a young femme and a young mech," the blue and silver mech said. I blinked as I listened to the accent his words carried. Neither his danniluk nor his sister carried such an accent. His accent almost sounded Italian. If he was a human living on Earth, it would have been considered an Italian accent.

"Yeah, the receptionists are never that thorough," Knock Out commented with a roll of his optics. He took his medical kit from his subspace before he walked over to the chair the noble mech was sitting in.

"I'm curious," Mirage said as Knock Out knelt down on his right side. "I like to know the designation of everyone I come into contact with. What are your designations?"

As Knock Out took out a welder he would use, he said, "It's Knock Out."

I transformed my index finger, or digit, into a pair of tiny pincers that I would use to connect wires and such as I smiled and said, "You can call me Wavelength."

As we began to work, me piecing things back together and Knock Out using the wielder to make sure my work didn't fall apart, we began to talk. It turns out that the high class castes of Cybertron were very sociable (except for the scientists over in Crystal City. They preferred to stay alone) with one another. That's why Mirage was talking so openly, though he carried almost an aloof tone. He still somewhat looked down at us because we were workers and he was not. The high caste was comprised of either scientific discovery or entertainment. The medical caste was up there, but we hovered just under what made high caste bots high caste bots.

I smiled though. I wouldn't let our differences bother me. Back when I was a human, I had been considered an "outcast" because I considered myself a tomboy, and because I never paid attention to the latest fashions. Even though fashion wasn't important here other than in the high castes, it was only a little different than what life was like back on Earth.

We were done in under a joor and I smiled in satisfaction at our handiwork. The only indication that the mech had been injured was the long silver scar that blended almost perfectly in with his colour scheme. Mirage clenched his servo into a fist before he flexed his arm in order to see if it was fixed. When a smile appeared on his faceplates, I knew we had done a good job. He thanked us for fixing him before he showed us out of his apartment.

As soon as the door was closed behind us, though, the mint-green femme from before appeared beside me. I blinked at her, astonished. "Can I…help you?" I asked nervously.

"Not really," she said. "I just wanted to say thank you, and to introduce myself as Moonracer. I'm not really Mirage's sister."

"O-okay?"

"I'm just staying with them because I'm an orphaned femme. Windbreeze has a big spark, if you know what I mean. That's why she wants me to call her Danniluk."

I looked at the femme, confused. "I don't mean to sound rude or anything—you've caught me off-guard. Why are you telling me this?"

She smiled. "Oops! Sorry. Anyway, the reason why I'm telling you this is because I really admire medics. I wish that I had been made a medic instead of an artist. And I wanted to thank you, and give you this," she held up a servo and opened her digits, showing that she was holding one of those gems. It was a sapphire blue one. "I wanted to give you it in order to show you my thanks. It'll bring out the blue in your crest," she explained.

I blinked a few times in surprise as my expression softened. "…Thank you…" I said softly. "I…I don't know what to say…"

The younger femme smiled knowingly. "You don't have to say anything. Though, I would like to keep in touch. I have a communicator. What's your designation?"

I was beginning to like the chatty young femme. "The designation's Wavelength," I told her as she helped me put the gem on.

* * *

Knock Out teased me the whole way back to the medical facility. But I didn't care. I had made a friend, the first true friend ever during the whole stellar-cycle and few megacycles I had been on this planet. Moonracer said she was going to contact me during the next orbital-cycle, when she would be doing her artist-y stuff. She said it helped her be creative. When Knock Out got to me with the teasing, though, I teased him back, saying, "Well, you didn't catch Moonracer's optic."

So the orns passed. When we became official medics, we had a toast over our accomplishment with a cube of normal Energon each. Medics couldn't afford to become drunk, and I didn't want to touch the high-grade.

But the peace was not to last in this new life I was experiencing, I realized. There had been rumours floating around the facility about two mechs named Megatron and Orion Pax. Then mechs and femmes began to come to the facility injured because of uprisings caused by mechs and femmes who called themselves "Decepticons". Every time we got patients who were injured because of the rebellions and uprisings, Knock Out and I would glance at each other nervously.

Then came the time when the mysterious Megatron and Orion Pax went to see the High Council. We didn't go because we were required to stay at the facility in case bots got injured at the meeting in the council chamber. Half the medics that were at the facility were at the meeting anyway.

The meeting was strange, we were to learn later. It seemed that the mech known as Megatron went to the High Council in order to become the next Prime. And to become the next Prime, the Council had to give you the title. And there was already a Prime, so I couldn't see how another one could be named. It was because of a squabble between the Original Thirteen Primes that caused the rule of only having one Prime ruling at a time to surface.

But Megatron wasn't named the next Prime, _Orion Pax_ was! He obviously delivered a better speech to the High Council than Megatron, because the High Council named him _Optimus Prime_. It had a nice ring to it.

And the reason _for _the meeting? Because of the two mechs' wish for all bots to be free again, like back in the Golden Age. Now that was all fine and dandy, because I would love to live in freely like I had when I was human, but I was mortified at what happened because of it. Megatron declared war on Optimus Prime and the council chamber was destroyed. From what was said, only a quarter of the High Council members survived the attack. It was total carnage.

We medics only took care of the injured civilians as the Decepticons rose up and became a threat. We worked harder as news of bots called Autobots rising up to counter the Decepticons. And thus, a war broke out.

The war worried us. For the first few orns, we were held in absolute fear for what could happen. The medical facility was on the edge of Iacon, and any threat could sneak up on us. It was funny (in a twisted sort of way) how we had never worried before, but as soon as we were threatened, we were terrified.

I watched the fear in Knock Out's optics over those few orns. But slowly, I watched as that look of fear was replaced with a hard look. He buried his fear by becoming meticulous with his finish. He became vain and aloof. He looked down at the less experienced medics. He spent less time reading over the lessons in order to stay on the top of his game. He paid more attention to himself, so I had to work harder in order to keep the medical information fresh in my processor. Since we worked together, I had to know more so that we could still fix bots who came in broken.

I watched as the one I secretly called a friend turned into a mech I didn't know.

I stopped having conversations with him. If he ever talked to me, I hid my disappointment and talked quietly to him. When he asked me to assist with polishing his finish, I helped. I didn't argue. I didn't have the strength to do so.

What happened to the mech I once knew? What happened to the mech that used to flirt with me, and _only_ me? Who talked to me as if we were chums even when I didn't even know if we were even anything more than partners? The mech who had been just as sociable as a high class mech even though he was just a medic?

I wouldn't find out, because it continued on.

Megacycles passed and the war grew slightly quieter, even though the Decepticons still worked to cut us off from our Energon supplies. I finally allowed myself to relax slightly, but I still steeled myself for bad news to flow across the Grid.

One orbital-cycle, I was relaxed enough to give Knock Out a massage with the help of the buffer. I put my back in it and took pleasure in the groans of pleasure that left Knock Out's voice box when I moved the buffer over a sensitive spot. I grinned as I felt him loosen up. This has been the first time since the war began that I've seen him relax.

"I take it that this feels good?" I asked as I ran the buffer over a sensitive spot again. At his nod, I giggled. I massaged him for a few more klicks before I turned off the buffer and put it away. I went to say something, but the outside wall of the room, which so happened to be attached to the wall facing out into the wilderness surrounding Iacon, exploded inward with a loud blast. I screamed and raised my servos to my helm as I was pelted by shrapnel.

Decepticons rushed by us but didn't bother to attack us. A groaning caught my attention, and I turned to watch as a section of the wall separated and began to tip in my direction. I was frozen in place as it fell towards me. But I had some sense to raise my servos and shield my faceplates as the wall crashed down on me. I screamed as the weight of the wall crinkled and bent my wings out of shape. It pushed me to the ground and buried me.

For the longest time, I listened to the roaring of the Decepticon attack, but eventually it grew quiet. All I could hear was my own breathing. But then, the rubble shifted and I suddenly was looking at Knock Out's face. His finish was terribly damaged, but the raw look of desperation stopped me from worrying about his looks. "Stay with me, Wavelength," he said as he reached for my servo.

Weakly, I reached for his servo, but it was like the energy had been sucked from me. "C-can't…" I whined.

"You _can_ do it, Wavelength!"

Warnings flashed across my heads-up display (HUD), saying that a forced shut-down was imminent. I tried to reach for him again, but the world faded out of focus and everything went dark.

* * *

**Yeah, so you see, I had to make up a lot of stuff so this could run smoothly. I read a fic in which Mirage had been still living with his family before the war began, so I applied that to this fic. Dunno when he'll reappear, since I don't know if he'll even be in **_**Transformers: Prime**_**. Bummer, I know.**

**BUT! You know who might be appearing in the next season? There's drawings of him! SIDESWIPE! Looks a lot like movie-Sides, but he's red. And he turns into a Lamborghini. We'll have to see…**


	5. Carnage

**I'm only half-pleased by this chapter just because it seemed a little choppy to me when I was writing it. But after I read it through, it seemed smoother than I first thought. Whatever :D**

**Thanks **_SJSGirl, pokemonjkl, Taboo22, Dragonmaster789, _**and **_markzilla6895_** for reviewing! They make me so happy! n_n**

**Note: One more chapter of being on Cybertron before Wavelength is Earth bound!**

* * *

5 – **Carnage** – 5

Medics were running to and fro, screaming at the top of their voice boxes. The Decepticons were in the main room of the medical facility, shooting at them. None of the medics had any official weapons. They only had laser scalpels and welders to fight and defend themselves with. One by one, every medic in the main room was cut down. Their anguished cries could be heard all over Iacon.

Knock Out came from their office/surgical room with Wavelength in his arms. Her right arm hung down loosely and her helm had rolled to the left, into Knock Out's chest. Her black-rimmed optic-lids were closed heavily over her optics, showing that she was in deep stasis. Her wings hung loosely from her back all bent and cracked. Her once glossy (and beautiful, Knock Out added) chassis were scratched up and dented. It looked like she had gone through a war, but she had just been crushed under a wall.

Knock Out stopped and looked down at her strangely peaceful form. She was different than him in personality, size, shape, and Cybertronian type, but he had always been able to get along with her. She was a…friend. But she was also more. His spark twitched strangely, and he didn't understand why. He didn't have the time to dwell on it, but he figured it must have started way back when he first saw her. When he waved at her when she had first come through the door in First Aid's small tutor-room, and she had waved back. She had a slightly nervous look to her then, which made her kind of cute.

The loud click of the safety of a cannon drew his attention to the left. The vain medic growled at the sight of the seeker that dared to point a weapon at him. Dormant programing that had been lying dormant since the orbital-cycle he had been sparked flared to life as he set the femme in his arms down in the safety of a nook and turned to face the Decepticon. He growled again as he forgot all about protecting his finish and charged at the Decepticon. The seeker must have been inexperienced, because he looked like he wasn't expecting a medic to fight back. The seeker actually screamed, dropped his weapon, and tried to run. But Knock Out was on him. The seeker was only a foot or so taller than him, so it was easy for the medic to push him into the wall and pin him there. Knock Out savagely pried open the seeker's chest plates in order to enable access to the Decepticon's spark. And when he did, he didn't think twice before he reached in and crushed it.

The red medic stepped back and allowed the seeker's husk to drop to the floor. Allowing himself to calm down after staring at his first kill, he turned and walked back to where he had left Wavelength. When he had her in his arms again, he ran back to their office and jumped out of the hole caused by the invading Decepticons. He had to get them away. The medical facility in Praxus would do.

* * *

I opened my optics and found myself back in the Well of AllSparks. I looked around at the sparks and smiled at how they hummed in greeting. They seemed glad that I was back. A familiar yellow spark detached itself from one of the walls and floated over to me. It came to rest in my cupped servos as I felt love over the bond. "Hello again, Bumblebee," I said.

"D-Danni…" a small voice said as the spark suddenly formed the shape of the sparkling I had seen when I first held Bumblebee. Big blue optics stared up at me.

"How are you, my little 'Bee? Did you want to see me?" I asked as I rubbed his helm with a servo before gently touching his doorwings. Bumblebee purred and leaned into my touch.

Little Bumblebee nodded eventually, answering my question. His optics seemed sad as he looked up at me. "You're hurt, Danni. Hurt really bad. Your friend Knocky is scared for you. Really scared."

"So you brought me here because?" I asked softly.

"'Cause, if I didn't…you would go bye-bye…"

Sorrow gripped my spark. "You're keeping me online, my little Spark?"

He nodded. Energon tears welled up in his optics, so I held him close. I allowed him to listen to my still-beating spark. "It's okay, Bumblebee. It'll take a lot more than some wall to knock me down."

Bumblebee began to purr loudly. I knew he was glad I was here. It seemed that his spark had matured a lot since I had last seen him. It seemed that he would be ready to leave the Well of AllSparks soon and become a sparkling. But I didn't know if I would be able to claim him when he came to the land of the living. With this war waging, I bet I'll be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Someone else would probably try to bond with Bumblebee, but they would then find out that he would already have a danni.

"Danni…" Bumblebee sighed. I smiled and allowed my spark to hum a little bit louder.

"Danni's right here," I said softly. It was quiet for a few nanokliks. "Bumblebee?" I caught the little one's attention. "If Danni is not at the Well of AllSparks when you are ready to leave, don't worry. If I'm not there, it means that the war that is currently waging will not allow me to come to you. I love you, Bumblebee."

Bumblebee nodded. "Yes, Danni," he hummed.

"_Wavelength, it is time for you to return to your body once again,"_ came the voice of Primus.

"Yes, sir," I said. But I didn't want to leave. I didn't want to leave my sparkling. I didn't want to return to that war. I brought Bumblebee away from my chest and looked down at him. "Bumblebee, I have to go now. Always remember that Danni loves you."

He nodded again before he turned back into his spark form and floated back to the wall. Then there was a rush of wind and I was blinded by some sort of light before I found myself in a laying down position.

* * *

When I managed to fully online, the time I had just spent in the Well of AllSparks was still fresh in my processor. I groaned as I filed it away for another time, feeling the sudden pain that came from being crushed by a wall. But I was able to push myself into some sort of sitting position where I was able to see more of the room I was in. I was in a recovery room of some sort. But hadn't the Iacon Medical Facility been destroyed by the Decepticons?

The door swished open and a couple medics walked in. I focused on them and recognised one of them as Knock Out. As soon as we made optic-contact, he rushed over to my side. He grabbed my right servo like he was my husband or something. "Thank Primus you're alright!" he exclaimed. I smiled at how caring he sounded. I hadn't heard that for more than half of a stellar-cycle. I looked into his eyes and continued to smile before the other medic came to stand beside Knock Out.

I looked at the medic and took in his appearance. I looked at his red chevron down to his white armor before I recognised him. "D-Default?"

"Hello again, Wavelength," Default said slowly. "It seems like the Medical Caste was the caste for you, eh?"

I only could nod as I thought over what had happened. The medical facility in Iacon had been attacked. I could only hope that the Autobots had been able to chase the Decepticons off. Iacon was my home, and I didn't want any of those immoral mechs or femmes infiltrating it. If I were to fight in this war, I would be an Autobot. Bumblebee would probably be an Autobot as well if he was a full grown mech and not still a spark. But where was I now? Was I in Praxus? Because that was where Default worked.

"Where are we?" I asked.

Default smiled. "You're in Praxus. Knock Out managed to snag a transport here before it took off. It was also one of the only ones that wasn't shot down by any Decepticon seekers." At the end of his explanation, he frowned slightly.

"I…I see…"

It was total carnage.

Megatron's forces were unrelenting. I became scared for my life and the lives of everyone around me when the war began to get very violent. The Praxian Medical Facility was abandoned when the medics decided it would be safer to hole up in their homes. Knock Out and I stayed with Default in his housing unit as the Decepticon army approached.

A vorn or two passed and we didn't dare leave the confines of the housing unit. We watched as Praxus became like a ghost town. Bots were thinking like we were.

But then…we ran out of Energon. Default's dispenser stopped dispensing any Energon. We were out, and we were going to burn off what was left in our bodies. If we ran out, we would offline.

It was strange how many times I've faced death during my life. First it was when I was human and that giant transforming robot, which I was sure was some sort of Cybertronian, shot me, I nearly died because I was crushed by a wall, and now I was facing death again because of the lack of Energon. So I died the first time because of someone named Megatron, then I was crushed by a wall…wait. Megatron? M-Megatron?

I had been thinking about that when I was chewing on an Energon goodie, because it was one of the last bits of Energon in the housing unit. When I remembered that the person who ordered me dead back when I was human, I stumbled until I could brace myself on the wall. I was alone in the quarters Default had given me, so no one saw me lose my balance. But I wasn't focused on that. I was thinking about Megatron. He was the one that wanted me dead back when I was human, wasn't he? I felt my internals heat up in anger.

He was the reason I was like this! He was the reason why I was so cruelly ripped away from my family, the reason I had to get along on my own! He was the one who was making me suffer!

Back when I was human, I had never had to worry about going hungry. If Earth was anything like Cybertron, I would have been a part of the higher castes, since my parents were businesspeople who helped the world run by helping their companies run. But I would still be human, not some almost-immortal metal being that could live thousands and thousands of years longer than any human could. It was Megatron's fault!

After I had managed to calm myself down, I figured out a way to keep ourselves from starving. There was an Energon reservoir not too far from Default's housing unit. If I could get there and fill up a couple containers with Energon, then we wouldn't starve. So I snuck out while the two mechs were not looking, because I knew that they would object my idea. They would say that they would do it instead.

Metal filings crunched under my pedes as I subspaced the containers and dashed down the road. There had been no sightings of the Decepticons within Praxus yet, so I was pretty sure I was safe as I made my way to the reservoir.

My heels, which housed my thrusters, clacked against the ground quietly as I ran as fast as I could. I had to get the Energon and get back to the housing unit before anyone spotted me.

I reached the edge of the reservoir and looked down at the gage that measured the quantity of Energon within the reservoir. But when I read the gage, I froze. It read empty. That meant that this reservoir was empty…what about the other reservoirs?

My audios suddenly picked up a familiar _whoosh_ sound. I turned my helm in the direction it came from just in time to see a bolt of plasma crash into my side. I cried out as I was thrown several feet before I crashed into the ground. Once I had stopped rolling, pain hit me from the area I had been hit. I lay there, trying to access what I should do, before someone was suddenly standing over me. I blinked a few times and looked up at the bot that was suddenly standing at my side.

I struggled to breathe as the bot, a mech that was easily three times my size, bent down and grabbed me by my back, between my wings, with one massive hand. I shrieked as the mech turned me around so that I was looking at him in the optic. I whimpered when I took in his red optics and his Decepticon symbol. "L-let me go," I pleaded quietly. "Please."

"I heard that you are a medic, young femme," the mech said. "Resources also tell me that you live with two other medics. Take me to them and I will spare your life."

"W-what's your designation…sir?" I asked, my voice still quiet as the mech set me down and a couple more mechs that must have been following him came and put a pair of wing-cuffs around my wings and a pair of stasis cuffs around my wrists. I knew the cuffs would knock me into stasis if I did anything against this mech's wishes.

"I am Megatron, and I am now your master," the mech proclaimed proudly before one of the mech's prodded me forward. I could only whimper like a scared cyber-cat as I was forced to lead my mortal enemy to my friends.

When we got to Default's housing unit, their looks of shock struck me in the spark like a knife. They weren't directing that look at me, they were directing it at Megatron and the Decepticons behind him.

We were captured by the Decepticons and made into Decepticon medics. I found myself on the opposite side of the war that I wanted to be on.

* * *

Default and Knock Out helped me become prepped for being a Decepticon medic. I didn't want to change my optic colour, so Default made me up an opaque visor that covered up my optics and half of my face. It was red in colour, making me look more like a Decepticon and helped me to hide my emotions. We were trained in combat so that we would be able to protect ourselves when we were out on the field. The training was short and choppy, though, since Megatron cared more about his gladiators than any other breed of Decepticon.

Between having to repair Decepticons and helping install new weapons, I tried to upgrade my fighting technique after I got some weapons as well. I had received a prototype Sonic Gun that focused on scrambling the systems of the bots it shots hit and tearing them apart, and the standard femme wristblades. I got better at fighting, especially when I sparred with Airachnid and managed to bring her down. I never liked her. She was a shady character—shadier than the average Decepticon.

I didn't like how I was fitting in with the Decepticons. I didn't like the way I was recruited, as well. Megatron had seen my submissive personality, so he didn't torture me into submission after he had Soundwave probe my processor. But Knock Out and Default were a little bit resistant, so after they had been tortured into submission, Soundwave twisted a few codes in Knock Out's processor to make him glitch if he ever tried to escape from the Decepticons. He did the same with Default, with a consequence of Default turning into a tactical, monotone mech.

It seriously scared me.

And it went on like this. Vorns upon vorns passed, and I couldn't help but wonder if Bumblebee's frame had formed around his spark yet. Who had picked him up if it had? One orbit, I decided to try and see if he was by tugging on our bond, and was delighted to feel a return tug with a shower of love. I showered him with love as well.

But I still wasn't happy with the fact that I was a Decepticon. I wanted to get away and join the Autobots, but I was too afraid to. Megatron would kill me if he caught me trying to run away. I wanted to scream until my voice box shorted out, but I didn't. I just stood back in the shadows as I watched the workings of the Decepticon army. There was this thin and spindly mech named Starscream. He was the Second in Command to the Decepticon army and a seeker. And there was this other mech named Dreadwing, who was the leader of a contingent of seekers in the Decepticon army. And then there was this mech named Breakdown, who had been assigned to be Knock Out's assistant, which shattered the partnership Knock Out and I had when we were still neutrals. At least Knock Out was still a close friend (I had found out when we were in hiding), and Breakdown was easy to get along with. He was cool to talk to, and soon I felt a friendship forming between us as well.

But I still didn't like how Knock Out's and my relationship had been ruined. I didn't show it to them, though, because I didn't want them to take pity on me. I just let the brute work with my former partner as I worked by myself.

Default came to me one orbit as I straightened my tools after an easy surgery. I looked up at the Praxian I used to know personally. Since he had joined the Decepticons, he had painted his chevron blue, and had added blue stripes to his finish in hopes that any of the mechs and femmes he had known before wouldn't recognise him. If he had been able to express it anymore, he would have been embarrassed. "Wavelength…I have observed you over the last while, and I do not like what I see."

"What do you see, Default?" I asked as I turned back to continue cleaning up.

"You have changed, Wavelength."

I huffed. "Well, that's what happens when you join the Decepticons. You change."

"There is a 50.2% chance that you'll never revert back to what you were before."

"I know."

Eventually, Megatron sent me out onto the battlefield, where I was made to strike down Autobots. I didn't like how I was forced to kill members of the faction I wanted to belong to, so I improvised. I cut down mechs and femmes by injuring them in a way that left them having to go limping back to a medic. And I knew all the right places to hit without risking them bleeding out.

At my third battle, though, I got in a tangle with a mech I had heard a lot about. He was the Autobot TiC, and his designation was Jazz.

He had chased me away from the battle and into one of the many alleyways in the city we had been attacking. He managed to drive me into a dead end.

All I could do was stare at the wall that seemed to laugh mockingly at me. I could hear him approaching from behind. My thrusters would have allowed me to escape, but during the battle, they had sustained a lot of damage. Jazz hadn't allowed me any time to perform any self-repairs, so I was grounded.

As Jazz approached me from behind, my wings drooped. I turned to face him, and merely stared at him. He came to a stop only a few feet from me. My weapons were still out, but I made no move to use them. "Ya're a slippah'y femme, aren'tcha?"

"I like being left in once piece…" I said.

"Tha's the thing," Jazz said. "Most Decepticons like ta keep themselves in one piece while brutally killin' eveahry bot they come across. Ya're different. Ah'd like ta question ya." And without pause, he flew at me. I tried to dodge and attack, since he had attacked me first, but before I knew what he was doing, I felt the butt of a gun crash into the back of my helm.

Back when I was human, I was known for my hard head. I could get my face smacked with a tetherball and only stumble backwards while other kids would be knocked out. But this time, when Jazz hit me with the butt of his gun, my vision swam and I stumbled around for a bit. And then I dropped to the ground and the world around me grew dark.


	6. Interrogated

**Here it is, folks! The last chapter in which Mikaela/Wavelength is on Cybertron. I hope you enjoy!**

**Thanks**_ SJSGirl _**and **_Taboo22_** for reviewing.**

* * *

6 – **Interrogated** – 6

_I found myself in the living room of my house. For some reason, I knew it was winter, though there was no snow outside. It was because it was Nevada, and it never snowed there. But it was still chilly, and there was a fire going in the fireplace. Dad was sitting in his favourite recliner near the fire as he read the newspaper. There was a cup of hot chocolate sitting on the side table that sat between his recliner and the couch. Steam was rising from it, showing that it was still warm. I could hear Mom in the kitchen, and the smell of spaghetti reached my nose._

_I had just come home from school and had just put my backpack up in my room. I wanted to spend time with my family before they had to go on their next business trip. I sat down on the couch and crossed my legs as my cat Pebbles jumped onto my lap. She was purring loudly as I stroked a finger under her chin and as I scratched her between the ears. I loved that cat._

_Picking up the TV remote, I turned on the TV and flipped through the channels. _Doctor Who_ was on the Canadian science-fiction channel 'Space', and I paused to watch as the Doctor ran from the Daleks and began to scream when he was cornered by them. I couldn't remember what episode it was, but I remembered that I had watched it. After becoming bored with it, I switched channels and landed on CBC, who was running an episode of _Murdoch Mysteries_. It was an episode I hadn't watched before, so I sat back and watched it as Pebbles draped herself across my lap and continued to purr._

_Dad looked up from his newspaper for a second. "Your mother and I have to fly to New York tonight," he told me. "There's going to be a big meeting at the main office."_

_I only nodded, not taking my eyes off the screen as Murdoch kissed his long-awaited lady-friend Julia. After all that he had been through, reigning in his emotions and seeing her get married to another man, I was glad he finally got be with the lady "of his dreams". "Okay, Dad. I'll be fine," I muttered._

"_Honey, can you go get the mail, please?" my mother suddenly asked loudly from within the kitchen._

"_Alright," I sighed. I gently lifted my cat off of my lap and pushed myself to my feet. I went to the front door and shoved my feet into my sneakers as I took the keys from the key-hook. I quickly walked outside and down to the mailbox. I opened the mailbox and saw that there was only one thing in the mailbox. It was a big brown envelop, and when I took it out and read the addresses, my heart sunk. It was my report card. From what scores I got from the last few quizzes, I knew my mother was going to kill me._

_But I slowly dragged myself back to the house, my legs shaking only slightly. I had to be brave; I wouldn't let my mother see that I was scared. Then she would interpret it as me being scared of her, and she would get even angrier._

_I walked into the kitchen and handed my mother the mail. She looked at me with an unreadable expression before she looked down at the envelope and opened it. I watched as she quickly skimmed through the whole contents of the envelope, and I watched as an angry look suddenly contorted her features. She directed the look at me, and I had to resist the urge to cower. "A D-minus, Mikaela? What the heck are you doing up in your room when you say you're studying?!" she bellowed._

_I felt the tears trying to surface. "Studying…but—"_

"_But _what_?!" Mom screamed. "But you play on your phone instead? Or…or you chat with Jack?"_

"_No!" I exclaimed. "When I go to the tests, my mind blanks. I forget—"_

"_You _forget_? That's just an excuse!" and then, out of nowhere, her hand slapped me across my face…_

…and I woke up, shaking, in a cell. An Autobot cell.

I sat up and rubbed both of my servos over my faceplates. My wings drooped as my processor caused me to think over the dream several times before I was able to calm myself down. Why that memory? The one where I got slapped in the face for the first time because I got a bad grade? _"If you say you can't do well on tests, then that means that you are stupid,"_ was what she had said after I had stumbled back from the blow. And because of that, I hated my mother for weeks.

Tears rolled down my cheekplates as I tried desperately to calm myself down. I wiped at my faceplates in order to get rid of the tears. I couldn't look weak in front of the Autobots, especially in front of Jazz, the one who brought me in. From my time with the Decepticons, I had heard about the TiC's ruthless interrogation tactics, where he entered your processor and proceeded to rip it to shreds as he looked for the information he needed. I knew he was going to do that to me. I was a medic and I was one of the ones to know the state of most of the troops and Megatron himself. I had repaired the warlord a couple of times.

I drew in a shaky breath and straightened my posture as I heard the door leading down into the dungeon creak open slowly. _Do not look scared, do not look weak_, I told myself. I continued to take deep breaths. But then I was shocked out of my actions when I noticed the sparkling standing before me, on the other side of the bars. He was goldenrod yellow, and he was looking at me with impossibly large blue optics. I studied him for a few nanokliks before I recognised him. It was Bumblebee, my sparkling!

Quickly, I retracted my visor and stared at him with my still turquoise optics. Bumblebee took one look at my optics before he let out a happy chirp and squeezed between the bars. Luckily there hadn't been thousands of volts of electricity pumping through them at the time. Bumblebee rushed to me as I opened my arms wide for him. My spark sang with joy as I gathered him up into my arms and held him close. "My little Bumblebee," I cooed as I rubbed his helm and his doorwings. "You're safe…"

I felt him nod his little helm before he leaned back so that he could look me in the optics. "'Dey keep me safe, an' dey pway wif me, an' make sure I haf my Energon," he told me happily in a mixture of sparkling speech and Cybertronian. The nightmare/memory was gone from my processor, and all my attention was on my little sparkling.

"Who do you play with, 'Bee?" I asked.

His optics practically sparkled with joy. "I pway with E'ita-1, an' Ch'omia, an' the ot'er spark'ings. An' I pway with Jote, an' Moon'acer, an' sometimes Jazz and P'owl. Sometimes ev'n Op'imus!" he answered.

He got to play with a lot of bots it seemed. But most of them were the Autobots I heard rumors about. Elita-1, leader of the femme portion of the Autobot Army; Chromia, femme weapons specialist; Jolt and Moonracer: medics; Jazz: TiC and interrogator; Prowl: SiC, tactician and interrogator; and Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Optimus, Prowl, and Jazz held my life in their servos at this moment, but I didn't care. I was with my sparkling.

"That's good, 'Bee. That means you're not alone. That makes Danni very happy," I said, making my spark hum a little bit louder. "Let's me know that you're safe while I'm not with you."

There were a few kliks of silence as we just sat there and snuggled. I watched in contentment as Bumblebee's doorwings flapped lazily. But then Bumblebee asked a question. "Danni…when are you going to stop fighting in da war? When are you going to come back?"

His innocence made my spark want to shatter. "I don't know, sweetspark, I don't know. Megsie wouldn't let me go. He would hurt me really bad if I tried to leave. Once this war is over, I'll come to you and we can spend all the time together that we want," I told him.

"We can do tat now, wight? De Autobots will keep you safe from the bad Dece'ticons!" Bumblebee said.

He was so innocent. "The Autobots won't be very nice to Danni, 'Bee. They'd hurt me too before they would even let me out," I said.

"Ya got that right, femme," Jazz's voice suddenly piped up from outside the cell. I gritted my denta and slammed my visor down over my optics. Bumblebee squeaked in alarm as I looked up at the TiC and scowled.

"Do you mind?" I said, irritated.

Jazz pushed off of the wall he had been leaning on when he had dragged my attention to him. I watched him closely as he walked up to the bars of my cell. His visor flashed, mirroring his tense expression and stance. "Ah _do_ mind, femme. Release tha sparklin' and don't touch him. Ya have no right ta touch an _Autobot sparklin'_, Decepticon!"

I looked down at Bumblebee softly. He looked up at me with his large optics as he latched onto my chestplates. "N-no…" he whined. "Don't make me weave, Danni!"

"What the _slag_?!" Jazz swore. I looked up at him sharply.

"Language, saboteur!" I scolded, my voice, like a knife, cut through the air. "You do not swear around a sparkling!" Jazz growled at me. "If you want to hear the explanation, you will not verbally bite my helm off, _do you understand_?"

Jazz crossed his arms. "Whatever you say, _'Con_," he spat.

I took a deep breath and looked down at Bumblebee as I sent waves of comfort down our bond. He looked pretty shaken by my outburst. "I emerged from the Well of AllSparks as a full-grown femme. When I was still in the Well, I met Bumblebee. I became his Danni because he was lonely. He has the right to call me Danni, even though I'm a Decepticon and he is an Autobot." I looked down at Bumblebee as he looked up at me. I smiled sadly, even though he couldn't see the tears flowing from my optics. "You must go, sweetspark," I told him, my voice starting to shake.

Bumblebee shook his head violently. "Not without you, Danni!" he cried.

I sighed. "You don't want Jazz to take you with force, do you?"

He shook his head again and I managed to pry him from my chestplates. I kissed the top of his helm before I got up and walked to the bars of my cell. Then I sat him down on his pedes and urged him to leave the cell. And he did, but not without tears. "We will meet again soon, my spark. I will always be with you."

"Bye…Danni…" Bumblebee whimpered before he ran from the dungeon. I looked down, allowing the tears to flow freely from my optics. At the bottom of my visor, they were syphoned away.

I worked hard to calm myself down, so I didn't notice Jazz enter the cell until he had grabbed my shoulders and had slammed me into the wall at the end of my berth. Even as my wings scraped painfully against the metal wall behind me, I kept myself from crying out. "Now that Bumblebee is not in tha room, we can get down ta business," he growled.

"My pleasure…" I grumbled, trying to keep my faceplates as far away from his as I could.

Jazz threw me back down onto the berth, making sure I was still sitting upright when my aft hit the surface of the berth. I was ready for whatever the silver Autobot threw at me, which was strange when I paused to think about it. When I had been human, and I had just met someone new, I would have been so quiet and submissive that I wouldn't retort. I had been like that when I was forced into the Decepticons. I was hardened now. But…I wouldn't mind telling my interrogator secrets if he didn't try to destroy my processor.

He roughly took my right hand, and I knew that he was going for my data-port, so I opened it before he could reach for it. He glanced at me questioningly, but I didn't say a word. I watched as Jazz took his data-cable and slid it into my data-port. _If it is data you need, then have at it_, I thought.

My firewalls instantly popped up, and Jazz grunted. "Sorry, habit," I said without emotion before I forced the firewalls down. And then he was in there. Searching through everything. Whenever he looked at one of my files, the opening of it would send a jolt of pain through me. But I gritted my denta, trying to ignore the pain as I shoved the needed files up front in order to keep him away from the files containing my memory and who I was before. But even after he had gone through all the information I had about the Decepticons, he delved deeper. "Wait…!" I gasped before a rush of mind-numbing pain washed over me, making what I saw blur and shift slightly before clearing and straightening out again. "No! Stop!" I exclaimed when he came to the file that contained the information of what I was before I was a Cybertronian.

"Sorry, femme," Jazz said, making the words not sound like an apology. "Gotta know all about who ya are so that if tha Decepticons manage ta take you back, we'll be able ta combat ya."

I wanted to scream. Out of all my personal files to start with, he had to go for the one about my previous, non-robotic life. Why couldn't he have gone for the file about how I didn't want to hurt the Autobots? _You'll just have to let him see it, Mikaela. It's either now, or farther down the line where it will hurt even more,_ I told myself.

"Eh, what?" Jazz asked. I looked up at him. "Why did you address yourself as 'Mikaela'? Yah designation is Wavelength."

If he could have seen my optics, I would have glared at him. "Open the file and see for yourself," I said in a neutral voice.

And he did, and it hurt. A failsafe that I couldn't control caused Jazz to have to pry it open. And that caused me a lot of pain. It took him four kliks of prying before he gained access, and that was with my help. It was like my processor never wanted anyone but me to see what was inside that file.

When he was granted access, my processor was flooded with memories. Some of them good, but a lot of them were bad.

…

_I was sitting on my swing in the backyard of my house in Comox, BC. I was happy. I was laughing. My hair had been long, long and brown and very, very straight. It was being held back by a white hairband. I was dressed in a white t-shirt and blue jeans and grey sneakers._

...

_The day my hamster died there was a bad storm. Wind whipped at the trees, and rain doused everything. My family and I had to dress up in our rain gear in order to stay dry as we went outside and buried my hamster. Her name had been Spots._

…

_The day I had started high school in Jasper, Nevada was when I met both Jack Darby and the jock Vince. He was annoying, even though I wasn't cute enough for him. He was always following, always causing mischief. Sometimes I'd find notes from him in my locker, or pictures of him without his shirt on that I quickly ripped up before anyone could see them. He was so very annoying. I just wanted to make him leave me alone. One day, I figured out how to make him—I pulled a prank on him. Football ran after school, so one day, I went to school with a couple cans of pink paint and a can of red paint. When he was at football practice, I dumped the cans of pink paint all over his hot rod (since I didn't have enough time to paint it), and then wrote "Don't mess with the Maple Leaf Bandit, Vince" in red paint on the windshield before I painted a maple leaf beside the period. Friends back in Canada called me the "Maple Leaf Bandit" because I used to prank them while wearing a bandana, beanie, and t-shirt that had Maple Leaves on them._

_After that, he left me alone. I think he realized that if he bugged me anymore in any way, he'd get pranked again._

…

_The day someone first broke into the house while my parents were off in a business meeting, I thought I never could stand to be left alone again. I had been sitting down on the couch, watching an episode of Stargate SG-1 with some pizza and a bottle of ginger ale. I watched as the members of SG-1 ran back and forth on the screen as they battled the Goa'uld. But suddenly, someone kicked down the front door and entered the house. I resisted the urge to scream as I jumped up from the couch and grabbed my dinner. I rushed upstairs and locked myself in my parents' bedroom where I snatched the phone up and dialed 911. Once I told the dispatcher that someone was breaking into my house, I ducked under the bed as the dispatcher urged me to stay on the phone._

_I could hear the burgalur rummaging around downstairs for something before I heard him rip out something downstairs. The SG-1 episode was abruptly cut off, showing that the item that the thief had in his hands was the TV. I whimpered. Mom and Dad were going to be so upset. _

"_Halt! This is the police!" I suddenly heard a man bellow. There was a scuffle downstairs before there was a dull thud._

"_Got the TV," I heard another voice say._

"_Good," I heard the original voice say. "Reginald, you got him?"_

"_Yes, sir," said another voice._

"_Good," the original voice said again. "The girl must be upstairs."_

_I slowly got out from under the bed and walked to the door. I opened it and walked over to the stairs before I descended them. I met the police officer halfway down. "Are you alright?" he asked. _

_I nodded slowly, afraid to look him in the eye. _

"_You did a good job, young lady," the man said, causing me to look up at him. "You could have been hurt if he had seen you. He had a gun."_

…

Jazz looked at the rest of the memories that I could remember, even looking at the ones where I was two years old and could only remember a couple of seconds of the time I was at Disneyland, and how, when I was six and I wanted to go on the Mad Teacups at Canada's Wonderland and didn't get to go on them. He even looked at the memory of when Mom actually struck out at me because of my low grade.

He continued on after that, finding the file that told him that I didn't want to hurt the Autobots, so I only injured them. He paused at that for a klik before he continued on until he had probed my entire processor. When he was done, he ejected his cable and let go of me. He took a step back and looked me over as I sat there, trembling slightly from exhaustion as beads of coolant pooled at the top of my chestplates and on my shoulders.

I watched as he rubbed his chin with a thoughtful look on his faceplates. "Ya're a confusin' femme, 'Con. Ya're a 'Con, yet ya have the processor and the spark of an Autobot," he told me.

"That's because I was turned into a Decepticon against my will, saboteur. If I defect, Megatron will offline me as soon as he sees me again," I told him in a weak voice.

"Ah'll have ta talk to mah superiahs about ya situation," Jazz said before he turned and left my cell. I then watched as he left the dungeon.

A weary sigh escaped me as I laid down on my side. Quickly, I found out that the berth was as hard as rock and not as soft as the berth I had in my quarters back at the Decepticon base. Not that I could complain, those berths were hard as rock too, not as soft as the berth that I had when I was neutral.

As I fell into recharge, I wondered if Jazz had seen the memory of when I found out Megatron was the reason I was Cybertronian in the first place…

* * *

I was ripped out of recharge when the world around me seemed to explode. My optics snapped opened and I looked around wildly from behind my visor. I relaxed slightly when I saw Knock Out standing in my cell with Breakdown, but I couldn't help but squeak when Knock Out gathered me into his arms. "Your knight in shining armor has come to rescue you," he said sarcastically before he jumped upwards through a hole that they must have created when they broke into my cell.

Gunfire instantly erupted in the room below us before Breakdown joined us on the roof of the building. "Who has dungeons on the main floor?" I asked as Knock Out jumped down and landed on the ground. He put me down on my pedes.

"I don't know, Autobots?" he replied before more gunfire surrounded us.

We transformed—me going into my land mode—before we took off. "Thanks guys, I owe you one," I told them.

Vorns passed, and I made sure to stay clear of any traps any Autobots could run me into so that they could capture me. I knew they might have cared for me because of my ties to Bumblebee, but I was wary of thinking that just in case they really didn't. The only Autobot that could possibly ever care about me was Bumblebee.

More and more vorns passed and one day, I saw Bumblebee out there, fighting with the Autobots. I was shocked that first time that for the rest of the battle, I felt numb. My sparkling was all grown up. He was a warrior.

When we fought at Tyger Pax, I was horrified when Megatron captured Bumblebee. I could only watch from where I was standing behind Megatron as Megatron ripped out my youngling's voice box and left him to die. If it wasn't for me, he'd probably have offlined. But I held on to him even when I had to fly back to the Decepticon base.

One of the final battles I fought on the surface of Cybertron was the one that happened on the edge of the crater caused by Omega Supreme. Bumblebee was there as well, but I stayed away from him as I tried to take on Ironhide with a few other mechs. They were some of the few that had ingested Dark Energon, which I didn't dare touch. The Dark warriors felt so easily that I retreated from the large mech, knowing that if Dark warriors couldn't take him down, I couldn't either.

I stood there, dodging shots, wondering who to attack next. But I stopped when I heard movement behind me.

My back was facing the crater, as something incredibly large stood up behind me. Quickly, I turned around and couldn't help but gasp at the sight of Omega Supreme, who was still alive, but heavily injured. I stood there, wishing that I was on the Autobot side because I knew that I was going to get creamed.

"Fight, Autobots!" he thundered. "For Cybertron, fight!"

I looked over at the Autobots, my spark fluttering uneasily.

"Wavelength!" Megatron bellowed. I looked at him. "Return to base. Let me and my Dark warriors handle this." I nodded before I jumped up and transformed into my flight mode. After flying a risky loop around the gargantuan Autobot, I rocketed back to base, where I got repairs for the damage I had gotten during the fight.

The war on Cybertron was drawing to somewhat of a close. Soon after I got repaired, I learned that the Autobots were preparing to leave Cybertron thanks to Bumblebee. He had wanted me to know that he was going off world. But a plan was forming in my processor. I was going to go off world too, when the Autobots did. I just had to convince Megatron to let me go.

"Lord Megatron, I have learned that the Autobots are preparing to leave Cybertron. I wish to command a small vessel for only myself so that I may follow them," I told Megatron after I came to him one orbit. It came out all in a rush because if I had said it any slower, I would have halted and the words would have died in my throat.

Megatron lifted his helm from where he had it propped up in one of his hands. He was sitting on his throne, so I gracefully went down on one knee. I looked down at the cold, gunmetal grey floor, waiting for him to acknowledge what I had said.

"How did you come across this information, Wavelength?" Megatron finally said.

I glance warily up at the leader of the Decepticons. "I…" I started, afraid of how he would react to what I said. "I…have my resources…"

He looked at me hard and long. I was afraid he was going to ask me to elaborate, which I had no way of doing. But after almost three kliks of tense silence, Megatron nodded. "Very well," he said. "Go get your ship ready."


	7. Home

**I originally picked Mikaela/Wavelength's flight alt to be an F-35 Lightning II, but then I find out that's Dreadwing's alt. *facepalm***

**Thanks **_SJSGirl, _**and**_ Taboo22_** for reviewing!**

* * *

7 – **Home** – 7

Space was deep, deeper than I expected. It was incredibly black, black as ebony—probably even blacker. It was dotted by stars and clusters of galaxies, which from a distance, seemed to meld together and form a long, thick strip of light. This made me feel unexplainably alone. I was alone on my ship since I had been unable to follow the Autobots through the Space Bridge due to it shutting down as soon as they were through. So I was out, in the middle of space, in unknown territory with nothing but my own thoughts.

I had been thoughtful enough to pack myself a library's worth of datapads in order to keep myself occupied as the ship continued on forward.

My ship was large enough to house a room in which there was a berth, a nightstand, and a closet holding a few personal items. There was the small bridge containing a pilot seat and controls (and a view screen). There was a hall leading from the bridge to the back hatch where I could get on and off of the ship if I had to land. And then there was the "library", where the datapads were stored on shelves. That was my little world. After a few vorns of just flying in one direction, that was what I came to know as my home.

Often, as I flew the ship past stars, comets, and planets, I would think about Knock Out and Breakdown. I had told them I was leaving, but I saw how sad they looked. They would miss me. I told them that we would meet up again. I still owed them for saving me from the Autobot dungeon. I would also think about Bumblebee. He was still my youngling even though he was all grown up. He was a fine warrior.

I barely thought about my old life anymore. After Jazz probed my processor, I was too scared to. I had been a Cybertronian for longer than I would have ever lived as a human. I still missed it, but it was easier to forget about it. I barely remembered how some of the songs I used to listen to went. Sometimes, when I tried, I could only dredge up a few words. It scared me. As much as I wanted to forget about my old life, I found it hard to. My life wouldn't be there when (or if) I ever made it back to the blue and green planet that I used to call my home.

I pulled myself from these musings, finding myself reclined in the pilot seat of the ship. My visor had been retracted because I didn't need to hide my optics from any fellow Decepticons. I felt lethargic as I held up a block called a "holocube", which was the Cybertronian version of a picture frame. In it was a picture of Bumblebee, which I had captured in the midst of a battle. I held up another one, and looked at the picture of Knock Out and Breakdown in it. I missed those guys.

Softly, I hummed. I didn't want to be a Decepticon anymore. I either wanted to be a neutral or an Autobot. Would it be so hard to ditch the Decepticons? If I landed on the planet they were on and never went to them, would I be able to walk away? Would they hunt me down and kill me?

Those thoughts ran through my processor, but were interrupted by a beep from the consol. I sat up and looked down at the screen it came from, and blinked as it informed me that the ship had picked up a message from Megatron. It was coming from a familiar blue and green planet. I grinned. I recognised that planet. I would never mistake it for another.

Maybe I should start thinking about my human life again. 'Cause I was going home.

I flipped a few switches and grabbed the wheel. No use waiting, then. Mikaela was coming home.

* * *

I wasn't the best pilot. I had only had time to read a few of datapacks I had downloaded before I had left the surface of Cybertron. As the ship had flown through the endless cosmos, I had read the rest, but still didn't know how I was going to land once Earth's gravity grabbed a hold of my ship. One of the datapacks said that it depended on the pilot and if they're ready for the gravitational pull when they landed on a new planet.

Earth came into view and I readied myself. I gripped the controls tightly with my dainty servos as I planted my pedes firmly on the floor. I tensed my wings as the planet I used to call home grew closer and closer and closer…

The grin appeared on my face unwillingly as the ship plunged into the atmosphere. "Hoo boy, I'm gonna give the people at NASA a big shocker today, it seems," I chuckled as I streaked down towards the soil of the USA. Carefully, I steered the ship towards the area I knew as Nevada. Then I carefully angled the ship's nose up in order to slow my descent before I would go crashing into the ground. I carefully deployed the thrusters on the bottom of the ship in order to slow the descent even more as I said, "First things first…" the ship landed with a soft thump in the middle of a forest. "…Find Jack and Mrs. Darby after I've picked a couple of spectacular alt-modes."

I shut down the engines and left the bridge. I walked down the hall and padded open the back hatch. My smile didn't leave my faceplates as I stepped outside. As soon as my pedes touched the forest floor, I looked down at it and giggled.

For the first time after being on a planet made of metal for thousands upon thousands of years, I was finally on my home turf. And for the first time in vorns of war, I was happy…and I felt…_free_.

Megatron wasn't breathing down my neck, and I didn't have any peer pressure from any of the fellow Decepticons. I could do anything I wanted (as long as I didn't run into Autobot), and talk to anyone I wanted once I got my holographic generator up and running. Each Cybertronian was equipped with a small holographic generator. It had enough power to generate a small, solid hologram, and if one had to eat something organic, it would hold the material and process it as usable fuel.

I'd use it to say hello to Jack and his mom once I had my alt-forms.

Closing the hatch behind me, I walked away from my ship. Then I began to run. I ran through the forest, my spark singing with joy at the familiarity of what was around me. I was home.

I was home.

* * *

It was the middle of the night and my HUD was reminding me that I needed recharge, but I fought it as I approached an airfield. Knowing that I would set off an alarm as soon as I was on the field, so I started looking at the planes from afar. As I stepped onto the field, I took in the shape of an F-15SE Silent Eagle. I blinked a few times before I scanned it. Once my armor had reformatted to my new alt-mode, I stopped the reflex-induced transformation and took in the two tail wings that were tucked between my two main wings. Then I looked over all of the armor. This was what was fun about being a Cybertronian. The way you could choose alts was like the way people chose clothes.

As soon as my new flight alt-mode was fully integrated into my system, I quickly left the field. I could hear the humans flooding out into field, and I didn't need any small, metal bullets in my armor, _and_ I didn't need someone seeing me. So I quickly transformed into my new jet-mode. I rocketed into the sky, and set my sights on a nearby car dealership. But then I was distracted by a memory file that shoved itself into the forefront of my processor. Ah, the McLaren X-1. Almost forgot about that car. Only one was made.

How was I going to get close to it without having to fly to England? Hmm…if I could get specs of it off of the internet…I'd be to reconstruct the vehicle before integrating it into my systems.

So as I changed course and headed for Jasper as I quickly began searching the internet for the specs for the McLaren X-1. I knew it was (like) stealing because it was a one-of-a kind car. But whatever. I had to keep my "Decepticon-ness" up until this stupid war was over or I could change sides.

As Jasper came into view, I got the specs and quickly began integrating it into my systems. I began to descend, and as soon I was low enough to transform, I twisted out of my flight-mode with flourish and couldn't help but giggle. My pedes hit the ground with a soft thud, and once all momentum from my flight had been eliminated, I straightened. The rest of my armor showed that I had fully integrated with the McLaren. I looked at myself and purred. Two of my wheels stuck out of the back of calves, and the other two stuck out of my shoulders, pointing the same way as my wings. My wings were now wider. My thrusters were still in my heels, and my pedes were styled like platform shoes—but with extra armor.

I loved my new look.

But I couldn't wait until I got to talk to Jack again.

So without further ado, I transformed down into my ground-mode and drove out onto the highway. And once I knew the highway was empty, I poured on the gas and shot forward as fast as I could. I wanted to scream, I wanted to shout. I was so happy to be back, where I was comfortable, and not on some planet made completely of metal.

I glided around corners and soared over hills until the lights of Jasper came into view as the sun rose. I roared past the green sign announcing "Welcome to Jasper, Nevada", and coasted down the hill and down into the town. I had to slow down considerably so that I didn't speed. I didn't need to get pulled over by a cop. So, I slowed down to fifty kilometers an hour and activated my "holoform" (that's what I called my solid hologram). Placing my conscience within the holoform, I gripped my steering wheel and began to whistle.

Glancing in the mirror, I modified my holoform's image until, in the driver's seat, there sat a seventeen year old girl with pale Caucasian skin, blue—almost turquoise—eyes, medium-length brown hair, and was dressed in a simple black shirt and black jeans. On my feet were a pair of black converse. The hair framing my face was turquoise in colour, and the tips of my bangs looked like they were died the same. Keeping my eyes on the road, I made sure to change my holoform's hair-style into one where she had a high-ponytail. The turquoise hair framing my face now were streaks up the sides of my head.

Quickly, I made my way through town to where Jack's house was located. With an excited grin on my face, I pulled up in front of the Darby home and parked myself (it sounds weird saying that). Opening my driver's side door, I climbed out using my holoform. Shutting the door behind me as I quickly checked the time; I made my way around my alt-form and walked quickly up to the house. I could not remove the smile as I stopped in front of the door and knocked.

I stood there, bouncing on the balls of my feet as I waited for someone to answer the door. When the door finally opened, I grinned up at the black-haired boy that stared at me in shock. Before he could say anything, I enveloped him in a hug. I missed him so much. He would have no idea.

"Mi…Mikaela!" he exclaimed before wrapping his own arms around me in a hug. "W-what…? H-how…?"

I looked up into Jacks blue-grey eyes as I let go of him and took a step back. "I'm fine, Jack. Yes, I got shot by a huge metal tin-man, but I was saved."

Jack blinked a few times, gaping. "But…how are you still alive?! There were scorch marks and…and…"

I pressed a finger over his lips in order to stop the barrage of questions I knew he was going to throw at me. "It's okay, Jack. I'm not dead. I'm here" I took my finger from my lips "and I am alive."

"Who…" Jack said after I removed my finger. His voice was calmer, but I could still see the questions bouncing around in his head. "Who…saved you?"

A smirk appeared on my lips. "A soldier—a commander, actually. He was just driving along when he saw me sprawled out on the ground. I was pretty burned, he told me when I woke up," I wanted to grimace. I hated lying to my friend, even though the thousands of years I had experienced in the Decepticon ranks had made it easy for me. I had grown up, as a human, told to not lie, because it wasn't good. But now I had to lie, because there was a connection between my friend and the Cybertronians. Now that I remember that, Megatron had me shot in order to get at Jack…and this 'RC' person. "But I'm here now. I've been hidden away from the government for who knows how long…how long have I been gone, Jack? They gave me a calendar, but I never bothered to keep track."

"You've been gone for a week, Mikaela…are you feeling okay?"

It was nice that someone actually cared for my well-being. "I fine," I said happily. "Why do you ask?"

"Well…" Jack seemed to be at a loss for words. I waited patiently for him to continue. "It's unlike you to forget the date or how long you've been doing something or how long you have been away…"

I waved it off. "No need to worry about it, Jack. I have been busy. I've been handed from one government agent to the next because they're obviously 'worried' about me being shot again. It's like they know something I don't!"

Jack chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck with a hand. "About that…" he said slowly. "The 'giant tin-man' that shot you…is what the government is trying to keep you finding out about." He grabbed my hand. "Come in." he glanced about nervously. "We have no idea if someone is spying on us." Gently, he pulled me inside and closed the door. Then he locked it behind me. Then he lead me down to where he sat me down in the living room. I chose to sit down on the carpeted floor, so he sat down in front of me, facing me.

"Whoa, Jack," I smirked. "You're acting like a conspiracy theorist here. I'm expecting you to pull out a tin-foil hat and put it on at any second now."

He snorted. "No…no, I'm not meaning to act like a wack-job," he focused on my seriously, "but I have something important to tell you. And I don't want any government agency to hear about it. I don't want you to tell _anyone_, okay? You don't know if one of the people you may talk to might be _them_…"

I cocked an eyebrow. "Who?"

"Let me start from the beginning," he said, now talking to me in a loud whisper. "There are giant robotic aliens roaming the planet. They are at war with each other. The good guys are called Autobots and the bad guys are called Decepticons." When he said Decepticon, I felt my spark pulse just a bit faster. It reminded me painfully that I was a bad guy. "The robot that shot you, he was a Decepticon. Their leader, Megatron, probably told him to shoot you so he could get at me."

"Why? What connect do you have with these C—robots?" I nearly cringed when I almost said 'Cybertronians' instead of 'robots'. Thank goodness he didn't seem to take notice of my almost slip-up. "I remember the robot saying something about shooting me would get to you and someone named 'RC'. Who is RC?"

"Arcee—A-R-C-E-E, is my motorcycle. She is my guardian because I know about the Autobots and Decepticons. She is an Autobot, a good guy," he said.

I wanted to shutter, but I stopped myself. So Jack was on the Autobot side—good. But that made me his mortal enemy. "Th-that's good," I said weakly before I coughed in order to cover that up. I glanced around. "Where is she now?"

"She's off on a mission," Jack said, returning his voice back to a normal volume. "She should be back soon. Do you want to meet her?"

"And have to get a guardian too because I'll know of them?" I asked. I glanced up at clock and saw the time. "I don't think it would be a good idea if I met her. I've gotta get going, anyway. Those government agents are waiting for me back at the safe-house. I don't want them to worry." I got to my feet. Jack mirrored me.

"It was nice seeing you, Mikaela," he said, hugging me. "I hope I'll be able to see you again sometime soon."

I hugged him back before I broke the hug. "Me too, Jack. I'll try to stay away from those Decepticons." I smiled.

He walked me to the door, and he opened it for me. He watched me as I walked over to my alt-form, and I waved at him as I disappeared inside. I saw him wave before I pulled away from the curb and drove away.

I wanted to think about a few things and scout around before I returned to Megatron.

* * *

A GroundBridge opened and Arcee slowly rolled into the garage. She honked her horn in order to catch Jack's attention. When her raven-haired charge came flying into the garage, she noticed he looked extremely happy. Before she could ask what was on his mind, he said, "Guess what, Arcee?" he was practically bouncing in place.

"What is it Jack?" she asked.

"Mikaela's back! Mikaela's back!" he was practically beaming. "She visited me and left just before you got back. She's alive! The government saved her before she died. She didn't incinerate like you thought!"

* * *

My systems onlined as I took a deep breath and smelled the morning dew in the air I blinked my optics a few times as they came online before I snapped my visor down over my optics. Today was the day I had to return to Megatron. No doubt Soundwave had already picked up my signal. With a content-filled groan, I sat up and lifted my arms up over my head. I stretched them as I stretched my wings before I got to my pedes. I had slept in my bipedal form after I had walked for miles in one seemingly useless direction. I had then just collapsed by some trees and had fallen into recharge.

After stretching my legs, I scanned the area around me to see if I didn't have any little spies before I continued on in the direction I had been going. I continued to scan, but only stopped when I picked up a familiar energy signature nearby. "B-Breakdown?" I voiced out loud. "So…he's here too."

I transformed up into my flight mode and jetted towards the origin of the signature. I hadn't seen neither Breakdown or Knock Out for a while, and I would like to catch up on what they had been doing. I flew out over a road and hovered over a blue hummer. My scanners said that the hummer was Breakdown.

**::Hey, Breakdown, haven't seen you for a few vorns,::** I comm'ed down to him.

There was a few kliks of silence before I got a reply. **::The name is Cylas, and I now commandeer this body. Breakdown's dormant memory files tell me that you are a female Cybertronian known as Wavelength.::**

I felt anger suddenly course through me. **::You…you **_**little leach**_**! You**_** glitch**_**!::** I cursed. **::What have you done to Breakdown?!::**

**::He is no longer with us, I'm afraid. Now, stay out of my way, I have a mission to complete.::** The gun on the roof of the hummer suddenly turned and pointed up at me. One rocket shot up at me from it and caught me on the underbelly of my alt-mode. I screamed as it detonated, forcing me to transform into my bipedal mode before it could rip my wings off. I fell to the ground and carved a long trail through the sand as I felt a few Energon lines break.

But I was not down. I was going to remove that…that "Cylas" from my friend's body, and I was going to make him _pay_.


	8. The Human Factor

**Here's the next chapter! Sorry for taking so long, but school got in the way and my dad decided that I couldn't write in my room anymore. So no more privacy—at all! Primus, I can't wait until I'm eighteen and my parents will lay off somewhat. Privacy means a lot to me.**

**Anyway, this chapter is named after the episode of the same name, because Wavelength will have to wade through the chaos that makes that episode. I just hope I haven't made Knock Out OOC.**

**I sympathized with Bulkhead when I watched **_**The Human Factor**_**. After twisting my ankle, I felt like dragging my left foot behind me a lot. Glad you're better, Bulky!**

**There are review responses at the bottom of the chapter. I hope you like this chapter!**

**(And I just realized that Breakdown's alt looks a little bit too big to be a Hummer XD)**

* * *

8 – **The Human Factor** – 8

I was mad. More than mad, actually. I was furious. Why? Because someone, _someone_, took over my friend's body and was using it.

I had transformed down into my ground-form once I got back to my pedes and was chasing after him on the road. I was constantly scanning ahead, trying to figure out where the slagger was going. And I eventually found out. He was going to a military base.

But why? I tried to figure that out as the Hummer pulled up to the gate of the military base. I stopped in order to watch what Cylas was going to do. But that didn't keep my engine from growling. I had never felt such hatred towards someone before, and that unnerved me. But that's what happens, I guess, when you've been a Decepticon for so long.

Cylas was allowed into the base, but as soon as he was free of the gate, he transformed up into the familiar form of Breakdown before he began to attack the base. I gasped and quickly transformed up into my robot form. I may be a Decepticon, but I still possessed the mind of a human. Most Decepticons hated humans to the core, but I was different. I charged forward with a yell, leaping over the chain-link fence that went up to my knees. I landed mid-stride and continued to run towards the brute.

When I got close to him, I tucked my wings down behind my shoulders, making them harder to get at once a battle begun between me and Cylas. I made sure to not step on any little humans who were shooting at Cylas as I approached him. As soon as I was close enough, I leapt at him, snarling. I landed on his back and unsheathed my wrist blades. "You messed with the wrong femme today, Cylas! I'm gonna make you regret killing Breakdown!"

I went for the cooling lines in his neck, but a massive hand came out of nowhere and grabbed me. I growled as he took me and threw me. I landed with a heavy thud as men scattered, yelling. But then I was back on my pedes glaring at the imposter from behind my visor. He was so much bigger than me, and half of me was telling me to not hurt him. But it was just the shell of my friend who no longer existed. Could I do it? Could I bring Cylas down?

I brought out my sonic blaster, cutting off further thinking in the process. I couldn't allow myself to get distracted. Not now. I aimed and fired at Cylas and grinned when he was taken off guard. My grin widened when he stumbled around a bit because of the sonic blast was scrambling his thought processes. I rushed at him again. He reached for me, but I dodged and fired off another shot.

But it missed and he managed to grab me. I gasped in alarm as he held me around my torso and grabbed my left pede. And then he began to pull.

The strain on both my hip-joint and knee was almost instant. I screamed as pain formed with that strain, and I clawed at him, trying to make him stop. But with a loud pop, my whole left leg came off. I screamed again as the pain overwhelmed me and warnings flooded my HUD. I felt the brute drop me, but I didn't move as I frantically began to numb the pain and sort through the warnings. I was taking deep breaths in order to cool my systems as Energon gushed from my left hip-joint.

I looked up at the sky, feeling like I wanted to cry. _Primus…you knew this was going to happen, didn't you?_ I asked. But no reply came over the sound of the humans' yelling and the sound of Cylas ripping the base apart. _But you would want me to get back up, wouldn't you? Even when I'm missing a leg…_ Yeah, that's what he'd want me to do. He fixed me and kept me from dying, so I guess I shouldn't give up. I nulled the pain in my hip, and prepared to get back up.

Sitting up, I put my right pede under me. Bracing my servos on the ground, I hauled myself to my pede. But as soon as I was up, I knew I wasn't going to be able to fight Cylas anymore. Just a bump would send me sprawling. That frustrated me.

So I stood there and watched as Cylas tore into the base and disappeared in a cloud of dust. I looked back at all the wasted helicopters that Cylas must have destroyed when I was down. I then looked down at where my leg lay. I hopped over to it and picked it up as I heard a whoosh and a whirring sound from behind me. I pivoted and looked back at a glowing green portal. I watched as out of it walked the last mech I expected to see. The red chassis and the white face were unmistakable.

"Knock Out!" I cried happily.

He turned and looked at me. His expression brightened and a smile appeared on his face. "Wavelength!" he quickly walked over to me and grabbed my shoulders as he looked at me carefully. "When did you get to Earth?" he spotted my dismembered leg, which I still held. His optics widened slightly. "Who did this to you?" he lightly touched my dismembered leg.

I went to reply, but I was interrupted by the sound of something being dragged I turned and looked back at the source of the sound. The flight-capable Vehicons that had come with Knock Out stiffened as the corrupted form of Breakdown's possessed shell dragged something out of the smoke. Knock Out was elated. "Breakdown! Where have you—" but then he stopped. Cylas turned to look at us and grinned slightly. "Breakdown? What happened to you?"

I shuttered and pressed myself up against my vain friend's chest. He wrapped a protective arm around me as Cylas approached.

"There lies a tale," Cylas said. "Which will not be nearly as interesting to Megatron as _this_," and with that, the corrupted-looking bot held up what looked to be a Cybertronian sized briefcase. "So, 'take me to your leader'."

I glared at Cylas. Somehow, I was going to make him pay for hurting me, and for doing _that_ the Breakdown.

* * *

We went through the portal the brought Knock Out and the Vehicons to the base. Cylas followed. As soon as we were on what seemed to be a ship called the _Nemesis_, Knock Out rushed me to his med bay and pieced me back together. He was done reattaching my leg in time for both of us to head to the bridge at Megatron's summoning. As soon as we were there, I knew our leader was not pleased.

We went and stood beside him as he addressed Knock Out alone. "Knock Out!" he bellowed. "What is this abomination?" he indicated Cylas. "And why have you brought him here?"

"I am CYLAS, as in 'Cybernetic Life Augmented by Symbiosis'. I come with a proposition," the brute said.

Knock Out pointed a sharp digit at Cylas. "_This_ was the human that dissected Breakdown!" he swapped that hand for his trademark saw. Following his lead, I brought out my wristblades. "Please, my liege. Allow me to return the favour," he growled.

**::I can't wait to pull him apart and look at the squishy that did this to our friend,::** I said to Knock Out over a comm. with blood-lust evident in my voice. **::Wait! Cylas dissected Breakdown?:: **

**::I'll explain later,::** Knock Out said, looking expectantly up at Megatron, his saw still spinning ominously.

"I propose that you don't overlook the one asset that provides Optimus Prime an advantage," Cylas broke in. "At least, on this world."

"And that would be?" Megatron questioned suspiciously.

"The human factor," Cylas put simply.

Megatron was not pleased. "Look around you, _Cylas_. I command an army from a mighty warship. What could a human possibly offer?"

"I am no _ordinary_ human," Cylas said with pride thick in his voice. He turned to look at the container that he had brought with him. Gesturing to it, he said, "And this is no _ordinary_ weapon."

Megatron looked at the weapon that sat in its case, which was now open. We listened as Cylas explained what it could do, and Knock Out put away his saw. "It's a particle-beam cannon, that once in orbit, can target anything on the planet below. It could destroy the Pentagon, the center of the human military organisation. It could blast a mountain away. It could even destroy the _Autobot base_ once you find it."

"It's a threat to _anyone_, anywhere on the planet," Megatron stated after hearing all of this.

"With pin-point accuracy at the flick of a switch," Cylas added.

Megatron seemed to think about it. "And what is it that you wish for in return?"

"Merely a place at the table," Cylas said with a slight bow.

* * *

Megatron sent Soundwave and several Vehicons to place in Colorado, where they were to find the code that would allow them to take control of the weapon, which was known as "Damocles". But as soon as the Third in Command and the Vehicons were gone, Knock Out and I were sent back to the med bay. I felt seriously unloved. Megatron barely looked at me.

It was not like I _wanted_ Megatron to talk to me or look at me. I wanted to remain invisible to him. But at least he could have looked at me when both me and Knock Out threatened to tear into Cylas.

But nope, I was just some other medic on this stupid warship that floated about over the Earth. I wasn't the head medic, I was just Knock Out's assistant, a _replacement_ for Breakdown. I felt my thoughts begin to slip into a dark part of my processor, but I stopped them as I turned to look at Knock Out as he rearranged his tools into neat rows out of what seemed to be nervousness. But how could he be nervous? Was it because I was in his presence, and he didn't know if I changed or not?

I walked over to him and hopped up onto the table, sitting in an empty space so that I could look at him in the optic. I retracted my visor and looked at him critically with my turquoise blue optics. "Knock Out, is something the matter?" I asked him. When he didn't look at me, I reached out and grasped his chin gently, but firmly. "Look at me, Knock Out."

Slowly, his red optics turned from where they had been staring down at his tools and looked into my optics. I smiled at him slightly, though it was hard to because of the depressed look on his faceplates. This wasn't the prideful, vain mech that I knew.

"What's wrong, Knock Out?" I asked, genuinely concerned.

By looking into his optics, I saw something snap, and I suddenly found myself in his arms. I looked up at him since I was now off the table and standing with his arms around me. "Primus, I'm glad you're here," he breathed. He cleared his voice box, and continued on with his normal tone of voice. "Ever since Breakdown died, I've had to do all the fixing and repairing myself—not that I mind. It actually makes me feel I have a place on this Primus-forsaken ship. But since he's not here anymore, I don't think anybot takes me seriously anymore. The Vehicons whisper things among themselves."

I patted his chestplate and smiled up at him. "You don't have to worry anymore, my friend," I told him in a chipper tone. "I'm here. They'll take you seriously now that you have an assistant."

Knock Out seemed shocked and his arms dropped to his sides to prove it. "Assistant? _Assistant_?!" he exclaimed. "Wavelength! You were never my assistant, and never will be!" at my incredulous expression, he hurried to explain. "You have as much skill, and maybe even more than I do. You are not my assistant, you're my _partner_, my equal!"

I crossed my arms and cocked an eyebrow. "Is that so? Wow, Knock Out, I never expected an _compliment_ to leave your vocal processor," I smirked. Mentally, I was reeling at how quickly he went from being nervous/upset to shocked. Though I had said something that made him shocked.

Silence settled in the med bay, making me uncomfortable. I blinked a few times. "Uh…I guess I'll go take a walk," I said after a while. "Nice talking with you Knock Out. We'll have to continue this later." I gave him a wave before I walked out the door.

I looked around as I took in the dull walls of the hall I was walking down. I headed to the bridge wondering what Megatron and Cylas were up to. I wanted to keep an eye on that guy. I didn't trust him.

I walked into the bridge in time to hear a small alarm going off. I zoomed in on the screen Megatron and Cylas were standing before as I stood by the door._ 'Systems Breach', huh?_ I thought, taking in the red warning on the screen.

"An intruder in the system?" Megatron remarked before he knocked Cylas out of the way and stepped closer to the screen. "Soundwave! We have a breach."

The computer instantly began to trace something across a map of the USA, and stopped over Nevada. Cylas got back on his feet and looked at it. "Jasper, Nevada," he said. "It could only be the Autobots' human allies."

"Then perhaps you should _attend _to the matter," Megatron suggested roughly.

Cylas was surprised. "Surely one of your subordinates would be better—" Cylas began.

"NOW!" Megatron commanded sharply.

I watched with wide optics as Cylas hastily nodded before rushing out of the bridge. I knew he was heading for the med bay, which was attached to the Ground Bridge control room. I glanced back at Megatron once before I followed the brute. My processor was awhirl with thoughts. _The Autobots have human allies. Jack is one of them. What if Jack is the one hacking into Damocles?_ I took off running, heading towards med bay. _Megatron wants them dead! I can't let that happen!_

I reached the med bay in time to see a Ground Bridge close. "Knock Out!" I barked. "Open another Ground Bridge!"

Knock Out turned to me with wide optics. "Now, Wavelength, you and I both know we want Cylas dead, but now's not the time to go against Meg—"

"I'm not going to kill him," I said in a deadly calm voice. "I just want to have a chat. NOW OPEN UP A GROUND BRIDGE!"

As the saying goes, pit have no fury like a femme scorned. Knock Out saw how serious I was, so he quickly opened up a Ground Bridge for me. Once the portal was open, I dashed through and transformed down into my ground mode before I was out the other side. I was dumped out at the edge of town, and I raced to follow Cylas, which I saw disappearing into town on the edge of my scanner range. I revved my engine, and shot into town, not caring about how I was racing faster than the speed limit.

I came across Cylas parked facing a house. I stopped and mentally gaped at the large cannon that was pointing at the house. It was the same cannon that shot me out of the sky when I first met the human-controlled brute. It was glowing yellow, and I knew he was about to shoot. A blast from that would total the house and kill the people inside. I scanned the house, seeing Jack immediately with a African-American man behind him, a Japanese girl beside him, and a younger boy in front of him.

That made me angry. No way in the universe was I going to let Cylas hurt them. I revved my engine, and charged at the blue hummer.

Suddenly, a green Humvee came up from behind me, and my scanners warned me it was an Autobot. I slammed on my breaks in surprise, and the Humvee shot past me. It crashed into Cylas' side, knocking him over. The squealing of metal on concrete shook me out of my shock. I revved my engine and chased after the Humvee, not wanting to lose Cylas.

Riding close to the Humvee's back bumper, I received a comm. request from the Autobot. With a tiny sigh, I accepted it. **::Just to let you know, 'Con, when I'm finished with Breakdown here, you're next,::** a deep voice warned me.

**::Not to worry, **_**Autobot**_**,::** I said lightly. **::For once, we're on the same team. **_**For now**_**.::**

The Humvee continued to push Cylas until they both tumbled into a deep irrigation ditch. Cylas and the Humvee transformed as they fell into the ditch, and I followed suit. I transformed and used the thrusters in my heels to slow my descent so I wouldn't tumble out of control into the ditch. I could be clumsy like that sometimes.

I landed gently as Cylas and the Humvee, now a big bulky Cybertronian with a nice moss-green finish, came to a stop, on their pedes, at the bottom of the ditch. They were standing only a few meters from me.

They began to circle each other slowly, and to my horror, I realized the Autobot was dragging his right pede behind him. He was disabled.

"I've been itching to trade paint with you again," the Autobot said fiercely. "Where have you been, Breakdown?"

"Be patient, I'm about to send you there," Cylas said smugly.

"You're not Breakdown," the Autobot clued in.

"But you are Bulkhead," Cylas stated. "And this is the last time you'll interfere with one of my operations!"

The Autobot's optics widened. "Silas…"

"In the flesh, in a matter of speaking." And with that, Cylas held up his right servo and transformed it into Breakdown's signature hammer. With a yell, he ran at Bulkhead.

I cringed, thinking of Breakdown and how he would always utter "hammer time…" before he went to smash up some Autobots. I missed him. But that didn't stop me from revving my engine in anger as Cylas slammed the hammer into Bulkhead and sent him flying. I charged at the brute, suddenly single-minded on causing damage to Cylas. To rip his fleshy body from my friend's shell. To relish in the splat his blood he would make when I was done…

My wristblades popped out of my arms as I approached, and I activated my thrusters as I jumped onto his shoulders. "You're goin' down, Cylas!" I cried before I slammed my blades down over his helm. They dug in about an inch before he smashed the hammer into my stomach. I cried out before I was sent flying.

Warnings blazed across my HUD, telling me that some of the metal in my abdomen had caved in slightly from the blow. I crashed to the ground, landing half on and half off my wings. I cringed again.

Cylas went at the Autobot again and slammed the hammer down. Bulkhead dodged and tried to counter with his wrecking ball, but was sent flying into a wall lining the ditch. Slowly, I peeled myself up off the ground, watching as Bulkhead went down on one knee. He glared up at Cylas who took a step back and taunted him into standing back up. Bulkhead did with a yell.

As I got my bearings back, I watched as Bulkhead swiped at the human-'Con. I snarled when Cylas seemed to tease Bulkhead by dodging every swipe. "Reaction time is slow," Cylas noted smugly. He dodged again. "You're favouring your right side." He dodged again. "Legs are weak." I saw how Bulkhead was struggling. He could barely move. I brought out my sonic blaster.

Bulkhead tried again to hit Cylas, but he was quickly knocked away. I ran at Cylas again, seeing as he was focusing completely on Bulkhead, and not me. I leapt at his back, but as if he knew I was coming, I was batted aside again. I growled as I slammed into the ground again. Primus! He was so skilled! The human must have been in the army or something before he got implanted into Breakdown's body.

Getting to my feet once again, I heard Bulkhead grind out, "I'll show you weak!" He was on his feet and charging at Cylas again. Cylas dodged again, and I was worried the cycle was going to repeat itself. It did, but this time, Cylas danced around Bulkhead and slammed the hammer into the Autobot's back. Bulkhead went flying forward as I ran at Cylas again, planning to drive the tip of my wrist blade into his back. But he saw me, and he swung the hammer at me like a baseball bat. It hit me in the abdomen, forcing Energon up and out before I was sent flying as well.

But I transformed, thinking quickly. I brought out my sonic blaster, mounting it on my underbelly. I pointed and fired at Cylas several times, hitting him only once before a new Autobot, this one white and blue, came out of nowhere. He transformed and slammed into Cylas pedes first. This sent Cylas flying as the new Autobot landed nimbly on his pedes.

As I transformed and landed on my pedes, the new Autobot walked over to Bulkhead. "An assist: what the new guy's for," I heard him say.

I took a deep breath for the first time since starting the battle. I turned and looked at Cylas as he approached. "One new guy to another," the human-'Con sneered, before cracking his neck in a spine-chilling manner. He transformed his servo into the hammer again before saying, "This is your final day on the job." And he charged. He brought the hammer down hard, but they dodged.

My engine revved again. "Hey!" I yelled, grabbing the human's attention. I spread my wings in order to make myself appear larger. "Vengeful femme ovah here!" I stood up straight and pointed my blaster at him and smirked. "You may be able to bash me around, Cy-Cy, but it's against my medic training for me to allow a mech to harm a disabled mech—even when he's being assisted—while I watch!"

"If you say so, girl. I'll make it that you won't _have_ to watch," he sneered. And with that, he deployed his blaster and fired. I ran forward and attempted to dodge, but it followed. It hit me in the back as I tried to twist away from it. I was sent flying as, this time, everything tumbled into darkness.

* * *

I came to in the _Nemesis_' med bay. I had a pounding processorache and my back felt a little tender. My wing twitched, and the movement sent a jolt of pain arcing across my back. It seemed that the rocket had done more damage to my back then I thought.

The med bay door opened and Knock Out strolled in, a pleased grin on his faceplates. "Glad to see you finally online," he said as he held up a datapad. He typed a few things on it before he walked over to me. "You came back pretty damaged. A gaping hole in your back that threatened to open up the back of your spark chamber and sever those pretty little delta wings clear off. What did you do?" he said lightly.

"What's got you so tickled pink, Knock Out?" I grunted. I heaved myself up into a sitting position and reached back to touch the area Knock Out had indicated. I could feel fresh weld marks there.

He smirked and pointed over at a table on the far side of the room. I followed his finger and gasped at the sight of Breakdown's empty shell lying on Knock Out's examination table. "Megatron allow you to take him apart?" I asked shakily.

"Yes," he said triumphantly. "Though," he looked at me gravely, "he's not pleased with you at all, Wavelength. He's going to have a 'talk' with you later."

I shuttered violently. It was going to hurt.

* * *

**SJSGirl:** I don't know how Jack will react to her being a 'Con. He won't find out for a while though…

**Taboo22:** Thanks!

**zrexheartz:** Oh yes he did! Though, Mikaela/Wavelength couldn't stand up against him. She lost a leg and got a hole blown in her back for her trouble.

**Trunksymia:** I'm thinking about that…


	9. Video Games and Doubts

**So here's the next chapter! Sorry for making you guys wait so long. I hit a small writers block, but then I took the hammer of Inspiration and smashed it to pieces. And I sure felt like Thor as I did it XD**

* * *

9 – **Video Games and Doubts** – 9

**::Wavelength: come to the bridge immediately!::** thundered the leader of the Decepticons over a comm. that had been forcefully opened. I flinched away from the sudden intrusion, and Knock Out looked at me curiously. I was currently working on Dreadwing, who's wings had been singed when some of the Energon at one of the Energon mines had blown up. I was halfway through replacing the tip of his left wing when Lord Megatron comm'ed.

I looked at the wing-tip, which was half welded on, and quickly continued to weld it on, having a mental policy of not leaving a part of a procedure half done. **::Yes, sir. May I finish patching up Dreadwing first?::** I asked.

**::No, you may not. He will have to wait until I'm finished with you.::**

**::But—::**

**::NOW!::**

I grimaced at how his voice seemed to echo in my helm. Quickly, I finished welding the wing-tip, and examined it. It was going to heal nicely. I looked up at my "patient" and sighed. "I'm sorry, Dreadwing, but Megatron wants me in the bridge right now. Knock Out will continue repairing you while I'm gone," I told him. _And get scrapped_, I thought as my wings drooped.

Hastily, I ran from the med bay. **::On my way, sir,::** I comm'ed as I dashed down the hall, skirting around Insecticons and Vehicons as I approached the bridge. I knew Megatron was going to punish me before everyone on the ship for what I did, and I was afraid. Was this what Starscream expected every day?

The bridge doors opened as I slowed. My spark twisted uncomfortably. This was going to hurt. Really, really, _really_ hurt. But that didn't stop me from entering the bridge, where I saw Megatron standing before one of the large monitors with his back to me and his servos clasped behind him. My spark sunk. This meant that Megatron was _really_ mad at me. He knew I had gone after Cylas without his consent. "I'm here, sir," I announced, my voice threating to wobble. I walked up behind him and bowed.

"Good," Megatron said. "Now, do you know why I have called you here?" he turned to stare down at me.

I didn't move. I didn't want to speak in fear that I might say the wrong thing and enrage him more. I allowed a nod.

"Even though Cylas turned out to be a failure, I had ordered you to stay in the medical bay with Knock Out until I summoned you. Not only did you not stay in the medical bay, you followed him and engaged him in battle." Out of nowhere, his pede slammed into my side and sent me flying across the bridge. "Aiding Autobots!" Two Vehicons grabbed me and dragged me back up to Megatron before dropping me at his pedes. Slowly, Megatron crouched and roughly grabbed my chin, forcing me to look up at him. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't offline you _right now_!"

I gulped, breathing faster out of fear. I scrambled to figure out an answer. "Uh…y-you need me. I-I'm a medic and Knock Out can't do it all himself…a-and you can use me on re-recon. I-I know how to get information about the Autobot allies…"

The instant after that came out of my voicebox, Megatron let go of my chin and allowed my head to tip downwards. "Wise words. Wavelength, I want you to scout out Jasper, Nevada. Report back in one human solar cycle. If you do not, I will consider that you will have gone rogue." And with that, Megatron walked away. With a small whimper, I got to my pedes. Once I had straightened, I glanced at the Vehicons that worked on the bridge. They had watched the whole thing. As soon as they saw me looking at them, they quickly turned and focused on their consoles.

I guess this visor kept them from knowing if I was glaring at them or not.

With a small sigh, I quickly made my way to the Ground Bridge control room. My abdomen throbbed with pain from the kick, and I absentmindedly wondered if he had bruised the bottom of my sparkling chamber. But I rubbed the area and continued on before I walked into the med bay. Knock Out and Dreadwing weren't there, so I continued on until I was in the control room. Quickly, I typed in the coordinates for Jasper and opened a Ground Bridge. I quickly ran through the portal and transformed into my air-mode.

I soared over the trees near Jasper, wondering about how much Megatron valued my life. Probably not much. And that scared me.

* * *

When I decided that driving through Jasper could help me forget about what happened on the Nemesis, I transformed down into my ground alt and drove into the small town. But even when I tinted my windows to a point where people couldn't see inside me, and even though I was surrounded by familiar buildings and other things, I still felt depressed. It took a while for my spark to not feel so heavy, but even then, I wasn't all that cheerful.

Like, how was I supposed to? After living a life as a giant robot from a distant planet for thousands of years, and being forced into the Decepticon ranks, how was I supposed to be happy with a boss that thought that I was as worthless as slag? I was too scared to leave the Decepticons—and Knock Out—behind. I was afraid, that as soon as I was gone, Knock Out might be degraded, abused, mistreated. Yes, Knock Out was the Decepticons' "best medic", but Megatron didn't care. He didn't care how good you were at doing something like repairing troops. Knock Out was just as expendable as the next Vehicon. Breakdown was already gone, I don't know how I would feel if Knock Out was offlined as well.

I sighed and pulled over by the sidewalk that ran in front of a small mall. "Jasper Mall" was displayed on a faded plaque mounted on the wall facing me. I settled down on my axles with a relaxed hum, and activated my holoform. I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes as the windows of my alt faded to the normal tint and I made it look like I was resting. I made a pair of pink-rimmed aviator glasses appear over my eyes as I relaxed.

I couldn't leave the Decepticons. Not without Knock Out. And he couldn't defect because of the glitch in his processor. If he took one step off the _Nemesis_ with the intentions of defecting, the glitch would activate and send him into stasis lock. That would leave me alone to try to lug him away to safety.

But how could I get him away? Would I have to hook up to him with my dataplug and remove the glitch manually?

A rapping on my window brought me out of my thoughts and I opened my eyes. Taking the aviator glasses off, I looked out the driver's side window and saw Jack standing there, smiling at me. He must have been off work. He still had a KO Burger hat on. "Jack?" I asked before I point to my own head, indicating the hat. I rolled down my driver's side window just as Jack blushed and took the hat off.

"Uh…thanks?" he said meekly. I chuckled.

"Nice to see you, Jack," I said with a smile. "What are you up to? Are you in a rush?" my eyebrows rose and my smile turned into a smirk.

Jack rubbed the back of his neck with a small smile of his own. "Well…yeah. I had to get to the mall in order to meet up with a couple of friends. You know them, Miko and Raf?" I nodded. "Anyway, they want to try out the new arcade game machine for _Zombie Smackdown III_ before the rest of the town finds out."

I hummed in interest. "Well, that sounds like an exciting game. I remember playing a zombie shooting game back before I moved here, and me and a friend of mine totally slaughtered the undead."

The raven-haired young man rolled his eyes. "Gee, is Mikaela another Miko in the making?" he mused out loud.

I pressed an index finger to my chin. "Oh, I don't know…"

There was a bout of silence after that where we stared at each other. But then we both burst out laughing. "Is Miko still hyperactive?" I managed to ask between giggles.

"Y-yeah," he replied. "And still loves the same gory, scary movies under the monster genre."

I climbed out of my alt with a goofy smile plastered on my holoform's face. I began to walk towards the entrance of the mall while pretending to lock my alt with a holographic controller. Jack followed me to the entrance and opened the door for me. I had to giggle at his chivalry. I guess he was happy to see me.

Inside, we bumped into the teen and almost-teen that Jack was supposed to meet up with. "Good, you're here! C'mon, let's go to the arcade!" the hazel-eyed Japanese girl exclaimed as soon as she saw us. She latched onto Jack's left wrist and began to drag him towards the aforementioned part of the mall, leaving Raf and I standing there, staring after them. I glanced down at Raf and he shrugged.

We followed the two into the arcade and as soon as I was in through the door, I spotted Miko standing in front of the _Zombie Smackdown III_ arcade machine, holding up a purple plastic pistol and was pointing at the screen. I left Raf with Jack and walked over to the black and pink haired girl. She was halfway through a game by the time I came to a stop beside her, and it seemed that she was having a blast.

She was shooting zombies left and right, but she was soon overwhelmed and the screen went dark. In a flash, big red letters dripping drops of blood spelt "GAME OVER". Miko groaned before she began to fish for some more cash in her pocket.

"Hey," I said, catching her attention. "Can I play with you?"

"Sure," Miko said, studying me. "How good of a player are you?"

I shrugged. "Before I met Jack, I was pretty good at playing the first _Zombie Smackdown_." I smiled. "I'll pay for myself."

And with that, we began. Both of us inserted our coins at the same time and picked up our pistols. I weighed the gun in my hand and experimented in holding it as we waited for it to load. My sonic cannon replaced my right servo when I brought it out, so I never really held any weapons, other than when I managed to take a sword or gun from an enemy. But that wasn't going to stop me from taking out as many zombies as I could on the game.

Miko selected the 'One on One' option for two-player and we were plunged into a world made up of an abandoned mansion and sprawling courtyards and gardens…filled with zombies. I grinned and cocked my weapon, ready for when the zombies would start to swarm us. 'One on One' was a two-player game mode for _Zombie Smackdown_ that tested the skill of the player, making both players fight to kill the most zombies and gain the most points. So Miko wanted to see how good of a player I was, then? _You're on,_ I accepted the challenge mentally.

As soon as the zombies began to appear on the screen, I began to shoot. Every shot was precise, taking down each zombie with pin-point precision—actually that's a little bit of an exaggeration. Many of the zombies needed two shots to take them down because I often missed the "vitals".

The points ratcheted up as the zombie-death toll rose steadily. Constant gunfire filled the arcade as Jack and Raf watched us slaughter the computer-generated undead.

And then the game was over. I looked at the scores with a grin on my face as I set my gun down.

Player 1 (Miko): 200224 pts

Player 2 (Mikaela): 200538 pts

"Ah-ha! Beat you!" I exclaimed. Miko frowned and crossed her arms.

"Rematch!" she proclaimed, throwing her right arm up and pointing at the ceiling dramatically.

* * *

Later, after I had spent a lot more time having fun with Jack, Miko, and Raf, I found myself in my robot form, sitting on a large log out on the edge of town. Absentmindedly, I rubbed my crest and fingered the jewel I had gotten from Moonracer that was still imbedded in it. How times had changed since before the war. I went from being a normal girl, to a giant alien robot medic, to a warrior/medic that was on the _wrong side of the war_.

I hugged myself as a GroundBridge opened up before me and Knock Out stepped out. "Sulking, are you?" he voiced teasingly as he walked up to me.

I chuckled dryly. "You know me, Knock Out. I don't sulk," I told him.

"It sure looks like it," he said, sitting down on the log next to me.

A long, weary sigh escaped me as I propped my elbows on my knees, leaned forward a bit, and rested my chin in my servos. "It's been a long time since I've had any fun like I had today…" I said wistfully.

Knock Out lightly rested a servo on my left shoulder, the one closest to him. "What _did_ you do this solar-cycle?" he asked.

I hummed. "I impersonated a human and spent time with the Autobot allies," I said, looking at him out of my turquoise optics. I had retracted my visor as soon as I heard Knock Out was going to GroundBridge to my location. "They are…nice…they were kind. I felt welcome, something I haven't felt since we were sucked into the Decepticon side of the war…"

Knock Out nodded.

"I looked for information about the Autobots, but got nothing. They were without their Autobot friends," I added. I turned my head fully and looked at the red mech sitting beside me. "Do you think Megatron will punish me again because I didn't get any useful information?"

My friend looked at me with his red on black optics, and didn't say anything. But I could see his answer in the depths of his optics. They said: I'm not sure. My wings drooped in despair and I shrank down a bit. Fear raced around my spark for a couple of nanokliks before I managed to quell it. But I didn't stop the shudder.

A pair of strong arms wrapped around me and squeezed, giving me a hug. "Don't worry, Wavelength, everything will turn out fine."

_I wish that was true…_

* * *

**SJSGirl:** Yeah, I was happy writing that slaggers end, or what Wavelength had heard about his end. Megatron is scary-scary… *hugs myself*

**Taboo22:** Glad you do!

**markzilla6895:** You'll see… ;)

**zrexheartz:** Not good at all…

**Sunstreaker's Squishy:** I don't know how you missed it. I must have updated it on the days you weren't online… but oh well, at least you discovered it. :D Thanks!

**KayleeChiara: **Glad you like it, and thanks for the advice. There will be more daughter-son moments between Mikaela/Wavelength and Bumblebee coming soon!


	10. Alpha Omega

**So here's the next chapter. I hope it doesn't leave you disappointed :(**

**It focuses some more on Mikaela/Wavelength's angsty side, showing her frustration at her predicament. It's short, because I only had a little to focus on, but I promise that the next chapter will be longer (though, I don't know how much longer) than this one. And this chapter takes place during the episode "Alpha/Omega" so that's why this chapter is titled that.**

**I'm so wierd sometimes *headdesk***

* * *

10 – **Alpha/Omega** – 10

"So…Lord Megatron, I heard that Optimus somehow got a hold of an oversized toothpick. What're you going to do now?" I asked after he had debriefed all of us on the current situation. After hearing Megatron utter over the public comm., "We Decepticons…now face our darkest hour." I was internally shaken. That meant that the Autobots now had the upper hand and that meant my spark was in more danger than it had been ever before. Not like I was hesitant to go out there and risk my spark every other day, but since I was on the wrong team, I felt exposed, vulnerable.

"I have a plan in mind, Wavelength. Dreadwing and I will be leaving for Cybertron shortly. Tell Knock Out to prepare med bay for when we return," was the Leader of the Decepticon's answer.

My wings rose in alarm. "W-what? Are you anticipating a rogue Insecticon ambush or something?"

This drew a creepy chuckle from him. "Oh no, femme. I am their master. They will bow to me, as you have seen the ones on this ship do."

I nodded quickly and hugged myself. "R-right! I-I'll get Knock Out and help him prep the med bay…"

He nodded. "Dismissed."

I mirrored the nod and saluted crisply before I turned and walked quickly out of the bridge. But as soon as I was out of the room, I jogged towards med bay and entered. Knock Out was sitting on a chair, going through a datapad of information. I wondered if he was rereading First Aid's old lessons in order to keep on top of his game.

"C'mon, get up, Knock Out," I said, catching my partner's attention. "Megatron wants us to prep med bay. He's going to Cybertron for some reason, and he says he needs the med bay…" I sighed. "I asked him if he was suspecting that he was going to get hurt, but he just laughed at me. Ugh! I hate it that our leader seems so sure of himself, even when Optimus Prime is in possession of an ultra-strong sword that could destroy this ship if he wanted it to!"

Knock Out chuckled lightly. "Well, that's Megatron for you. He wants Cybertron back just as much as Optimus does—"

"But that's because he wants to rule it! He's got so many followers that his ego is probably bigger than Cybertron itself!" I exclaimed.

The red medic looked up at me, startled. He dropped the datapad he was holding and rushed over to me. He gripped my shoulder and clamped a servo over my mouth. "Don't say such things! Soundwave can hear everything we say, and he might take this conversation as a sign of mutiny!" he breathed heavily. "D-do you understand?"

He didn't let go of my mouth until I had nodded.

After that, we quickly began to prep med bay, making sure we had every tool we'd need during…whatever Megatron wanted us to do. And by the time we were finished, Megatron and Dreadwing were back from Cybertron. Before I could blink, Megatron was laying on the surgical table, telling us he wanted us to connect—no, _replace_, his arm with an arm he got on Cybertron. Actually, he was talking to Knock Out, not me, about doing this procedure, and when he was finished with talking to my partner, he told me to go out and scout some more.

Mentally, I growled, because I felt like I had just been shrugged off, like I wasn't important. I was a medic, slaggit! If I was working on you, your life would be in my servos! I could choose to kill you or let you live!

So with those dark thoughts, I turned and walked into the GroundBridge control room. Activating a GroundBridge, I ran through and appeared near the pyramids of Giza. I sighed as the sun began to fall, glad that I was far away from Megatron and had some space.

I tilted my helm back and glared up at the rapidly darkening sky from behind my visor. "So you want me to scout, _oh mighty Megatron_? Well, _I'm scouting_! See here?! _I'm in the ruins of Giza_! There could be things here that we never knew about. _Are you happy, Megadork?_ ARE YOU?!" Throughout my rant, I slowly had begun to yell, and now my voicebox was sore. But I was so frustrated. Megatron ruined my life. In more ways than one. I couldn't become an Autobot because some of the soldiers would rather shoot me than listen to me. I couldn't become rogue and try to live a normal life because Megatron would hunt me down. My spark fluttered with mixed emotions. I could never settle down. I could never relax.

"All I want to do is get away from it all…" I moaned, my posture slouching in defeat. Slowly, I made it over to a stone that must have fallen from the nearest pyramid. I sat down on it as my wings drooped. For a second, I realized that I hated myself and I hated my life. This wasn't how I wanted to live. But I couldn't do anything about it. When you've got a bot three times your size holding your life in his servos, you'd better listen to him.

My spark settled into a low thrum. I felt defeated. I almost wished an Autobot would appear out of nowhere and beat the slag out of me, and allow me to die. After all, I was just another medic.

"_But then you'd be leaving both Bumblebee and Knock Out behind,"_ a small voice reminded me. I pressed my lips into a thin line and nodded, agreeing with the little voice.

It slowly got darker as time passed. My vision automatically enhanced its sensitivity to light so that I could still see as it became completely dark. And still I sat there, not moving. At least, not until a pede came crashing into my back, between my wings. I cried out as I was forced forward off of my perch and onto the ground. I rolled a few times before I looked up and saw a blue femme glaring down at me. Behind her stood a young-looking white and blue mech.

I gasped in surprise. "Autobots!"

"Got that right, 'Con," the mech remarked with a smirk.

"Quiet, Smokescreen," the femme said. "This is Wavelength, properly known as 'the Harbinger of Death'." She started towards me.

"Why's that?"

"Because: whenever a bot saw her running in their direction, if they didn't fight her off, she'd injure you in a way that would leave you vulnerable to other Decepticon attacks," she informed him.

Big mistake for not taking me out right away, femme. I leapt to my pedes, and unsheathed my wristblades. With a shout, I slashed at her. She caught my wristblades with her own and used a pede to kick me in the abdomen. I was sent stumbling back, surprised.

I ducked when she went to slice at my neck-cables, and I tackled her legs. She hit the ground with a shout. "Smokescreen, go for the relic! I'll take care of her!" the femme cried. I watched as she tossed a tracker to the young mech, but I didn't make any effort to go after it as I got back up to my pedes, ready to take her on. I held my fists up in a defensive position, and bounced on the balls of my pedes.

The femme moved first and I dodged to the side, bringing a fist down on one her winglets. It torqued and bent a little, and the femme's reaction was immediate. She whirled around and caught me on the chestplates with her wristblades. I cried out as the blades sliced my chestplates open a bit, and completely removed the Decepticon symbol that had been painted there. But Energon began to leak from the gouges, and I knew I didn't have much time before I would become weak from the lack of Energon.

So I lashed out, kicking the blue femme in the chestplates as my glowing highlights seemed to glow even brighter with the frustration I felt growing in my spark. I didn't want to fight! I leapt after her and punched her in the faceplates. She stumbled backwards, but once he gained her footing, she launched herself at me. I twirled around and brought out my sonic blaster. I shot at her with it as soon as she was in my sights and smirked when it brought her down.

The sonic blaster was similar to the Resonance Blaster. It had enough power to stun a small bot for a klik and to scramble a bigger bot's thought processes for a few nano-kliks. It could also cause damage, if I hit the bot enough.

I chuckled and walked over to where the blue femme lay. I stopped by her side and squatted down so that I could be closer to her faceplates. I held up my sonic blaster for her to see, since the only thing mobile on her frame at this moment was her optics, which were stretched wide in panic. "See this? This is like the Resonance Blaster, but I call it a sonic blaster. Neat, isn't it? It paralyses my opponents on contact, and allows me to move in for the kill…or actually, for the injury." I smiled a little but dropped it.

"Let me see," I said tapping an index digit against my chin. "There are only so many of you… Your leader is Optimus Prime, then you have Ratchet, Bulkhead, Bumblebee…" I ticked off a finger as I listed each name "…Smokescreen, and Arcee. Knock Out tells me that there is only one femme with Team Prime at the moment, so I hazard to guess that _you_ are Arcee." My expression softened slightly, as did my voice. "You're Jack's guardian, right?"

The femme growled, and I leaned back slightly. The paralysis was wearing of. She was regaining use of her voicebox.

I stood up and transformed my blaster back into my servo. "Knock Out told me all about the hatred you had towards Airachnid. Hated her myself—never liked spiders—and I hate her now more than ever. Like, seriously? What better way than to make sure there _isn't_ life out in the galaxy? Take one head and then kill the rest? And guess what? She took Breakdown's spark! I want to pound her into scrap metal, I—I—!" I began to pace, leaving Arcee unattended.

I went up to one of the stones that had fallen from the great pyramid that overshadowed us. I struck out at it in anger. "You know what?" I told Arcee as she slowly sat up. "I hate being a Decepticon. You hear that? I _hate_ the faction I'm in to my very spark. But _no_, I can't change sides," I growled and kicked at the block, chipping some of the limestone away. "Megatron would offline me." I punched at the block. "And the Autobots wouldn't _accept_ me!" I punched at the block again, and I did it several times. My knuckle-joins eventually split open and began to leak Energon.

Looking at my servos, I slowly turned around to face Arcee. She was standing now and looking at me with a wary look on her faceplates. I walked up to her, my fight suddenly leaving me and stopped only when we were only inches apart. "Let me just tell you something. Megatron's up to something, and I don't know what it is. It has something to do with a dead Prime's desecrated forearm and the Forge of Solus Prime. Try to figure out what he's up to before he tries to mow you down," I warned. I then turned and ran away from her. I leapt up into the air and transformed into my flight-capable mode, flying away as fast as I could.

* * *

**KuroIchi30866:** Glad you like it! I have updated!

**zrecheartz:** Glad you are, because being a Decepticon is no picnic.

**Taboo22:** Glad you do, because it's a fun little project of mine. I'm trying to update as fast as I can, but real life gets in the way.

**optoclaw: **You've probably died of anticipation already. RATCHET!

**blackden85:** I've been thinking of pairing up Knock Out with Wavelength, but I don't know when It's probably take place during all the calamity XD A great way to find out that you're in love is when the world is falling down around you (like when they're trying to become Autobots). Anyway, glad you like it!

**KayleeChiara:** Yeah, this situation Wavelength is in is frustrating. It's frustrating for _me_ when I can't just make my character have a happy life without people pulling 'O_o faces. Yep, I should write a Shattered Glass story of this universe someday.


	11. Hard Knocks

**Hmmm...I'm not so proud about the first half of this chapter, but the second half I love. I hope you enjoy!**

11 – **Hard Knocks** – 11

I sat in my McLaren X-1 form down the street from Jack's house. My holoform was off as was my engine so that I looked like a parked car. My audios were tuned into the conversation that was going on in the Darby garage. My spark pulsed heavily as I listened to Jack talk to Arcee.

"Arcee? You seem gloomy," Jack said.

There was the sound of Arcee shifting. "There's a reason I look preoccupied, Jack. I had a run-in with a new Decepticon last night."

There was a small silence. "Who was he?"

"It wasn't a he, it was a _she_."

There was a pause before Arcee continued. "Her name was Wavelength. She's one of the Decepticons' medics, and a good one too. She…was in a strange mood when I fought her last night…"

"How strange of a mood?" Jack asked. "Do Decepticons even _have_ strange moods? I thought any mood they expressed was rather relative?"

"No, Jack, she was acting strange _for_ a Decepticon. She said she _hated_ being a Decepticon, she expressed that she wanted to change sides, but voiced that she knew that she could be rejected. We fought a bit, but she managed to paralyse me for a bit. She had the biggest chance to finish me off, but instead she didn't."

"That's weird."

"Yeah, it's weird. She used to be one of Megatron's most loyal followers_, _or _known_ as one. She was known to hold a lot of things to herself. She could have slowly been loathing her choice of becoming a Decepticon the whole time."

"Maybe you should talk to her again sometime," Jack suggested like the good friend he was.

"Yeah, maybe…"

I tuned out the rest of the conversation and turned over my engine. I quietly pulled out onto the road and drove away, mulling over the subject Arcee and Jack had been talking about: me. Would they even talk to me? How would they even find me? I drove to the edge of town, where I transformed up into my bipedal form and looked around. There wasn't much to scout out down in Jasper, but I knew where Jack lived. And I had a feeling Megatron knew where Raf _had_ lived prior to the incident with Cylas.

My friendship with Jack kept me from telling Megatron where he lived, and unless he used a cortical psychic patch on me, he'd never know. But that didn't make me any less afraid for my friend's safety.

I crossed my arms and took in the bright blue sky and felt the cool breeze brush up against my armor. Jasper might have sat right smack-dab in the middle of the Nevada dessert, but that didn't mean that it didn't have trees or a cool breeze. I liked it here, and it kept reminding me how much I had begun to appreciate what I had here when I was on Cybertron, even though when the sand got under my armor, it hurt.

But…I had to consider telling Jack sometime what I really was. I was his friend, yes, but I'm not human anymore…

**::Wavelength, I'm going on a little mission and I would like to take you along…::** Knock Out suddenly said over the comm.

I sighed. **::Where are you?::**

**::I'll send you the coordinants.::**

**::Thanks.::**

XXX

"Annnd…why are we doing this?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Why not grab the relic and run?"

Knock Out carefully placed the relic on top of a large boulder where the Autobots would be able to see it. It stood up in its canister, looking an awful lot like a key. "Megatron expects me to do some Autobot smashing," he replied. That's when I noticed that the Resonance Blaster was strapped to his right arm. "He won't know that I comm'ed you, at least I don't think so, so in case the Blaster doesn't work, I have you." He turned around and winked at me.

I crossed my arms and rested all my weight on my right leg. "I'd prefer if we'd just take the relic and return to the ship, but…am I sensing a plot to give the Autobots a chance to get the relic?"

"Not a chance," Knock Out said, but his optics said differently.

"Are you sure?" I asked, stepping closer to him. He couldn't see my optics, so I frowned. "I know just as much as you that you'd rather be a neutral than a Decepticon. But you know that I hold the Autobots in high regard. I want them to win!"

He sighed and nodded, but froze when the sound of a GroundBridge opening caught our attention. He grabbed my servo and we hid behind the boulder.

I heard two engines pull up before twin sounds of transforming filled the air. For a second, my spark lurched before reaching out to one of the Cybertronians that had arrived on the scene.

"Over there," I heard a familiar voice say, making my spark still. Arcee.

"Well, well," Knock Out said as he stepped out from behind the boulder. "Just the Autobots I wanted to see!"

"I'll handle the mad doctor, you go for the key," I heard her say to her companion. I heard her companion speak in Cybertronian in response, and my spark nearly squealed. Bumblebee!

"I've been waiting to thank you both for all the _memories_," Knock Out said, before a sub-sonic blast rang out.

Arcee cried out, motivating me to peek around the boulder to see what was going on. I watched as Bumblebee ran towards the boulder, but then turned, looking for Knock Out with his weapons out. Knock Out suddenly appeared and blasted him with the Resonance Blaster. And he kept the trigger pulled, causing the sub-sonic waves to pin him to the boulder and crack his armor. My bond with the yellow and black mech suddenly opened and the pain the Blaster was causing him rushed into me.

I bit my bottom lip-pate in ire before I transformed my right servo into my sonic blaster. I'm sorry Knock Out, but I have to do this. I rushed out from behind the boulder and shot Knock Out in the side. He cried out as he was flung away. "You. Are. An. IDIOT!" I screamed at my partner. I stalked towards him, my visor bright with my anger. "I…I… I didn't come all the way here to watch you try to _kill_ them! The Resonance Blaster is too strong!"

"Sorry…dear…" the red medic mumbled before the paralysation took over his systems.

I turned to look at Bumblebee, who was slowly stumbling forwards. I ran over to him, transforming my blaster back to a servo and braced him. "Bumblebee… 'Bee… It's me…" I said quietly, retracting my visor and looking up to meet his optics.

"**D-Danni?"** he asked.

I nodded. "C'mon, sit down. Let me take a look at those cracks so I can go beat Knock Out's faceplates into the dirt." I smiled reassuringly at him as I helped him sit down. Once he was at rest, I scanned the cracks in his chestplates before I began to apply crack sealant to them. Through our bond, I monitored how much pain he was feeling, and was glad as I felt it slowly ebb away. I sat on my knees and watched him once I was finished. "You'll have to paint over that later," I said fingering the now-sealed cracks.

He whistled sadly before he reached out and lightly touched the side of my faceplates. **"You still haven't switched sides…are you still scared?"** he asked.

I nodded. I looked down, no longer able to look into his optics. They were still as big as they had been when he was a sparkling.

A few seconds passed before I felt him cup my chin. He slowly brought it up so that I was forced to look into his optics, which still made him look so young. **"You don't have to be worried. I'll be there to protect you,"** he said, trying to reassure me.

I blinked a few times. "There are some things that I have to finish up first, sweetspark," I told him before I glanced over at Knock Out as he stood up.

XXX

I decided that a visit to Jack's would ease the sudden anxiety I now felt. After I left Bumblebee, Knock Out, and Arcee, my spark started wobbling crazily. It _wanted_ Bumblebee, and it didn't want me to leave him. We had been apart for so long that I had forgotten what it was like to be with my adopted creation. I had only been with him for such a short time—he had spent more time with the Autobots than with me. Yet he still viewed me as his danni, and not Elita-1 or Arcee.

I was overdue for a visit with Jack anyway. And after that good time at the arcade, I was ready to have fun with him, and possibly his friends.

And no, I do not mean the Decepticon type of fun, which consists of killing, maiming, or other horrible things. Human fun was what I was meaning, which was playing with your friends and doing stuff together.

My alt pulled up in front of Jack's home, and I stepped out in my holoform. My holoform's blue eyes dancing in excitement as I all but skipped up to his front door. My index finger hit the doorbell, and I heard its ring bounce off into the depths of the house. I only had to wait a few seconds before the door was thrown open. I smiled up at the ebony-haired boy who instantly ushered me into the house. "Glad you came over, Mikaela! Miko and Raf are here, and we thought we could do something together," he told me.

I smiled as satisfaction flowed through me. I loved being called by my old name. Sure my designation was cool, but I loved being called by my human name. I had grown to love my holoform because of it. "Cool!" I said. "I love hanging out with you guys. Feels cool."

Once we made it to the living room, I sat down on the loveseat as I watched Raf type away on his laptop. It was connected to another laptop, which sat on the couch next to him. "Fixing someone's laptop, Raf?" I asked.

He looked up at me and smiled, adjusting his red glasses. "Hey, Mikaela. Yep, Jack's laptop kept crash-dumping on him, so I'm fixing it."

"Okay," I said before Miko came running into the room.

"I brought my Wii!" she exclaimed. "We can play all sorts of games on it! This'll be grea—oh! Hey, Mikaela!"

"Hey, Miko," I said, returning the greeting. "What games have you got?"

"I brought _Call of Duty 3_, _Mario Kart Wii_, _Mass Effect_ something or other,and _Halo 3_!" she listed off.

"Wow," I said, surprised. "Most of those games are war games. Don't you get that enough with the 'Bots?"

Miko stared at me, mouth hanging open. "How does she know about the Autobots?!" Raf squeaked.

"Don't worry, guys, I told her about them when she came to visit me after I thought she was dead. Turns out she was shot by a Vehicon, per Megatron's orders. But a commander from the military came across her and took her back to base, where she healed. Now she's in the witness protection program."

"But…how is she allowed to leave the place where she is confined to?" Raf asked. I had heard from Jack that he was the technical one of the trio.

Silence settled over the room for a few seconds before Jack broke the silence with a shrug. "I dunno. Maybe the rumors we have heard about the WPP is wrong?"

"Maybe," Miko said, putting her fists on her hips. I glanced at her nervously as she squinted at me.

"So…" I said. "How about we play some video games?"

A tense silence replaced the previous silence, and I stood there, feeling like a deer caught in the headlights as Miko scrutinized me. I blinked once and sucked in a shuttering breath. Jack and Raf only stared at us. I didn't know what to do. My processor had gone blank.

The black and pink haired Japanese girl suddenly pointed at me with her right index finger. "Hey, Jack? Didn't you tell me that Mikaela's eyes were hazel in colour?" she asked my black haired friend.

"Yeah, why?" Jack was confused. "Miko, _what_ are you saying?"

"If Mikaela's eyes were hazel, then why are they now blue?" she glared at me, as if she knew that I wasn't human.

Jack turned to look at me as I looked at him. His eyes widened. "Um…m-maybe those are contacts…so that no one could recognise her?" he suggested.

Miko glared at Jack before returning the glare to me.

Raf gulped, and I looked at him. He was staring at his laptop's screen with eyes as wide as dinner plates. "J-Jack—! Miko might be on to something—" he turned his laptop around so that we could all see what was on the screen. My spark stuttered. A thermo image was on the screen, and it showed two red blobs, one shaped like Jack, and one shaped like Miko. There was no red blob shaped like me.

"I can see you and Miko on the screen, Jack, but not Mikaela," Raf said to my friend.

Jack turned to me with a look of utter shock on his face. He reached out and touched my shoulder. "B-but…I can feel her—and she's warm!"

Raf put the laptop off to the side and stood up. "It's because she's a holoform—like the holographic driver that rides Arcee when she's alone. Ratchet explained this to me. A holoform is a solid light projection any Cybertronian can project in order to interact with us humans."

I closed my eyes and sighed, bowing my head.

Miko smashed her hands together. "So is she a 'Bot, or a 'Con?"

"_Ya have no right ta touch an Autobot Sparklin', Decepticon!"_

Silently, I walked over to the front door. "I'll show you," I said with a sad tone touching my voice before I stepped outside. Jack, Miko, and Raf followed me outside and over to my alt. They stopped and looked at me nervously as I opened the driver's side door without using my holoform. "I won't hurt you," I told them as they continued to stand there. "It would go against my programming. And I can't show you here—I have to do it in the desert."

Slowly, they got in, Jack sitting in the front passenger seat, while the other two got in the backseat. I sat my holoform down in the driver's seat and shut the door behind me. I went to shut the doors for the teenagers, but Miko grabbed hers and slammed it _hard_. My alt jerked at the pain it caused and I saw her smirk. With a huff, I shut the other doors and glared at her through the rear-view mirror. "Don't push your luck, girl," I growled.

"Miko…" Jack warned.

I revved my engine and pulled out onto the street. I remained silent as I drove out into the desert, an angry look on my holoform's face. I thought about how I was going to explain this to them. Would they know it was even _me_? Or would they figure that I was just some Decepticon femme playing them for fools?

I pulled off the road once we were a kilometer or so from town, and I opened my doors. The kids scrambled out from inside me, and I followed them, but at a much slower pace. My spark was racing. This was going to hurt.

My doors shut with a soft _click_, and I turned and faced Jack, Miko, and Raf. Nervously, I wrung my holoform's hands. I lowered my eyes; I couldn't look him in the eye. "I…I…never wanted to hide this from you…Jack," I began. "I was just…scared…" I glanced up, seeing that Miko didn't look very impressed, and I couldn't read what emotion was on Jack's face.

"So you're saying that you're still my friend, a girl named Mikaela, even though you are clearly Cybertronian?" Jack said it in a flat tone, not betraying any emotion.

I nodded as tears welled up in my holoform's eyes.

"Well, tell us if you're a 'Bot or 'Con already!" Miko exclaimed.

I blinked and looked straight into Jack's eyes. "Please, Jack…don't hate me for this…" I whimpered before I deactivated my holoform.

With a roar of my engine, I transformed into my robot mode. Once I was done, my wings drooped and I got down on one knee, my visor retracting as I did so. I looked down at the sand, not daring to see Jack's reaction.

The reaction didn't come from Jack, though. It came from Miko. She let out a battle cry before running at my leg, she began beating on it, and I winced. I quickly locked my joints in order to keep myself from striking out. I leaned down to be closer on Jack's level, and I sighed in a defeated manner. "Jack…I don't want what I am to push us apart…"

I felt him press a hand to my left cheekplate. "Just tell us what happened," he said.

* * *

**zrexheartz: **Yep, so close. I'm actually frustrating myself with this story because I want Mikaela/Wavelength to be accepted with the Autobots!

**Taboo22:** Glad you did :D

**Carnomaniac:** I'm glad you like this story. I hope this chapter was satisfactory.

**Autobot StarRacer:** Well, it's gonna be a big shock for poor Raf, and I see Jack as a more level-headed guy, so I didn't think he was going to freak.

**KayleeChiara:** Interesting stories are fun, and I'm glad you like the twists and turns I put into it.


	12. Inside Job

**Funny how the title of the episode in which this chapter seems to be happening has a title that goes along perfectly with this chapter.**

**Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

12 - **Inside Job - **12

I sat down and crossed my legs as I prepared to tell them how I had become what I was now. Miko eventually stopped hitting me and stalked off. She sat down, her back facing me, and she crossed her arms. Jack sat down in front of me and crossed his legs as well. Raf looked at me uncertainly, as if he wasn't sure that I wasn't going to hurt him. I smiled softly at him and rested a servo down on the sand, palm up. I watched him quietly, hoping that he would trust me, but he walked over to Jack and sat down next to him. I retracted my servo.

"Start from the beginning," Jack ordered. "When the Vehicon…shot you."

I nodded, and let out a vent. "So…when I was walking home from when I was volunteering at the hospital, I saw this car sitting in front of my house. I admit it frightened me, and now that I think about it, I should have turned around and walked the other way. There was this strange _car_ outside my home, and I should have figured that someone could have been _robbing_ my home. But I walked by the car and approached the front door. And that's when the car transformed into a Vehicon and shot me."

"We saw the place where you were shot. It must have been painful," Jack said before he visibly shuttered.

I nodded. "Yeah. But the next part, that probably will raise eyebrows." I decided that I'd skip over the part where she met Primus and Bumblebee in the Well. It would prove awkward because Raf was Bumblebee's charge. "But I woke up in the Well of AllSparks, which is basically where all the sparklings, or Cybertronian babies come from. Once I got oriented again, I noticed that my body had changed, that I was no longer human with short brown hair and hazel eyes, but a black female robot. I had never been freaked out so much in my life."

After blinking and letting out a sigh, I saw Miko turn her head and look at me. She was still glaring, though.

I quickly advanced the story, telling them how I climbed out of the Well, experiencing my fear of heights the whole time, how I tried being a data-clerk, but ended up becoming a medic, how I met First Aid and Knock Out, how the Decepticons attacked and I got crushed by a wall, how Knock Out and I hid in Praxus with fellow medic Default, and how we were forced into the Decepticon faction because they needed medics."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Jack said, halting my last explanation. "You're saying that you're—"

"Doc Knock's partner?" Miko interrupted as she came to join us, all thoughts of sulking and shunning me gone.

"What she said," Jack finished with a sigh.

I nodded. "We're good friends."

"But he tried to kill Jack! And Bulkhead!" Miko exclaimed.

My eyebrows rose in surprise. "He didn't tell me that…"

"It's probably because he never wanted you to know," Raf pointed out.

I sighed with a sad nod. "But I remember a time where he wanted to help people and not hurt them. But after being forced into the Decepticon ranks, and after Soundwave rooted around in his processor, he slowly changed. I think whatever Soundwave did to him is causing him to act that way…" I rubbed my chin in thought. "I'll figure something out."

"Are you seriously thinking about returning to the 'Cons?" Miko asked dubiously.

I crossed my arms. "It's not like I can go marching into the Autobot base without getting shot at, right? And if I go rogue, like Starscream, the Emperor of Stupidity," Miko snickered at that, "Megatron will try to offline me."

"At least you were forced onto the Decepticon side, and didn't decide to join them because you wanted to. Are you going to try to defect?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," I said. "But I have to do it carefully." Suddenly my sensors alerted me to a Decepticon signature coming down the nearby road. I gasped, leaping to my pedes and backing away from my friends. "Guys, I suggest you run…"

"Why?"

"Decepticon!"

"Scrap," Miko growled.

I dashed away and jumped into the air, transforming as I did.

"Wait! Mikaela! When will we see you again?!" Jack called after me.

I didn't reply, since I was already roaring into the sky.

* * *

I stayed out on patrol for the rest of the day and night. I returned to the base the next morning.

I transformed and landed on the exposed deck of the _Nemesis_. I straightened and walked into the ship, keeping to myself. Inside, my spark was dancing. Jack believed I was still his friend, and I was grateful. I wasn't sure about Miko or Raf, though. Miko had started talking to me at the end, but that didn't mean that she liked me.

Quickly making my way to the med bay, I made sure my visor was down, and I put a smile on my face. Once I was inside the med bay, I looked around to see if Knock Out was there, but realized he wasn't. I scanned the room and even walked around it until I saw his aft sticking out of the wall. I stood there, shocked, trying to process what I was seeing. It was like seeing that Tangean princess from _Buzz Lightyear of Star Command_ being stuck in the wall when her powers faltered.

I rushed out of the med bay and around to the hall where I thought Knock Out's front half would be sticking out of the wall. I found him there, staring listlessly at the wall across the hall. "Oh my Primus! Knock Out!" I exclaimed. "What the heck happened to you?"

He jolted, and blinked his optics a few times. "Oh, Wavelength! The Autobot Soundwave captured escaped, and got me stuck in this wall. Megatron refuses to get me out of here. Can you please get me out?"

My wings drooped. "If Megatron won't let you out, I'm not about to take a chain-saw to the wall. I'm the only remaining _available_ medic. You don't want me to anger our leader, do you?"

"No—"

**::WAVELENGTH! REPORT TO THE BRIDGE IMMEDIATELY!:: **Megatron's voice suddenly thundered over the public comm.

I pinned my wings to my back and I cowered away from the voice. "I…I…have to go…" I whimpered before quickly making my way to the bridge like a kicked puppy returning to her owner. When I entered the bridge, Megatron was at me. He picked me up by the neck and threw me across the room.

I landed below the deck Megatron was on, amongst the Vehicon grunts. "Hey ST-3V3…hey M-4RK…" I said to a couple of Vehicons I recognised before a couple of Soundwave's tentacles came down and grabbed me by my shoulders. I was drawn back up to the main floor of the bridge and set on my pedes in front of Megatron.

"I'm very disappointed in you, Wavelength," Megatron said to me in a condescending tone. "_Very_ disappointed."

I dipped my wings in respect. "What did I do, my lord?" I asked quietly.

"Vehicon GR-3G reported seeing you conversing with three Autobot allies. I see that as a traitorous act, but you have been with the Decepticon cause for so long with no acts of insubordination, I would like to see _what_ compelled you to speak to such lowly carbon-based organics," the Decepticon leader said.

I gaped at him from behind my visor.

"Dreadwing! Remove Knock Out from the wall so that he can set up a cortical psychic patch evaluation!" Megatron ordered before grabbing me between the wings like he had back when he destroyed/invaded Praxus. I couldn't help but shutter.

* * *

I was laid out on a berth only a few feet from the berth Megatron stretched himself out on. Knock Out approached me with the cortical psychic patch, and looked at me worriedly. "You know that Megatron will have access to your processor in a completely different way as to if he was going to use your data-port…" he warned.

With a brave intake of air, I squared my jaw. "Y-yeah. He'll see my thoughts as though they are happening, not as files that he'd have to open…" I said.

"And I'll see everything," he told me in a soft voice.

I grabbed one of his servos, suddenly realizing how much of a mental anchor he had become. "Whatever you see on the screen, please do not judge me because of it," I said desperately.

His optics widened. "What do you—"

"Knock Out!" Megatron shouted from his berth. "Commence!"

"Y-yes, Lord Megatron…" the medic stuttered. He went behind my berth and crouched down. I heard him shuffle something around before something clicked and dug sharply into the back of my helm. I couldn't bite back the gasp of surprise. Knock Out then made his way over to Megatron and attached the other end of the patch to the back of the warlord's helm.

Quickly, everything plunged into darkness, and for a moment before I sank into oblivion, I wondered if Knock Out thought it frankly creepy watching my visor fade to black.

A memory opened up, and I suddenly found myself reliving the time where Knock Out and I decided to go racing back on Cybertron, just as the war was starting. It was in a city-state called Helix or something like that, and the track was really only one big oval that you went around and around and around so many times until someone crossed the finish line first.

Me and Knock Out had transformed, and once my tires touched the ground, we took off. We were laughing, playfully bumping into one-another, trying to make each other spill as we tried to make sure to pull ahead and win. But my attention was pulled away from the memory as a large servo grabbed my shoulder and whirled me around to face Megatron.

I was mortified. He was _inside my head_!

"W-what are you doing inside my processor, Megatron?" I growled angrily, half thrown off that I had just referenced to my helm as my _head_. I was reverting back to human terms!

"Ever since you came to Earth, Wavelength, you've been acting a little strange," the leader of the Decepticons informed me. So he had been watching me… "Before coming to this planet, you were ruthless, cunning, a _true _Decepticon. A Decepticon that was _never_ afraid to charge helm-long into battle!"

That was how I made myself look during the time I was with the Decepticons on Cybertron.

"But of course, I should expect you to waver now because of the way you _became_ a Decepticon," Megatron smirked.

…

_I struggled to breathe as the bot, a mech that was easily three times my size, bent down and grabbed me by my back, between my wings, with one massive hand. I shrieked as the mech turned me around so that I was looking at him in the optic. I whimpered when I took in his red optics and his Decepticon symbol. "L-let me go," I pleaded quietly. "Please."_

_"I heard that you are a medic, young femme," the mech said. "Resources also tell me that you live with two other medics. Take me to them and I will spare your life."_

_"W-what's your designation…sir?" I asked, my voice still quiet as the mech set me down and a couple more mechs that must have been following him came and put a pair of wing-cuffs around my wings and a pair of stasis cuffs around my wrists. I knew the cuffs would knock me into stasis if I did anything against this mech's wishes._

_"I am Megatron, and I am now your master," the mech proclaimed proudly before one of the mech's prodded me forward. I could only whimper like a scared cyber-cat as I was forced to lead my mortal enemy to my friends._

…

Megatron looked at me. "Indeed, the orbit you became a Decepticon was the orbit Praxus fell. I still revel in the feeling of pleasure at the look of fear in Default and Knock Out's optics!" he said.

I growled. "What happened to Default, anyway? I've been wondering about him."

"I killed him myself," the warlord said to my faceplates. "When you chased the Autobots off into space, he began to defy orders. One day, he tried to offline me, but for his trouble, he got offlined instead. I cleaved his helm from his shoulders! I watched with glee as the optics behind his transparent visor flickered out!"

My spark felt like it was melting as sorrow tried to overtake me. Default had taught me how to transform…he was a good friend.

…

_"I am Default," he said in an almost monotone voice that carried a hint of what I would call a British accent if I had been living back on Earth. "And I will be your tutor on the basics of transforming."_

…

"You think aloud, femme," Megatron growled, glowering at me. I gulped. "And what was that about Earth?"

I began to shiver. I didn't say anything because I didn't trust myself not to sound ridiculous. Megatron pinned me with a look as he began to circle me. I stood straight and made sure to not move a muscle. My wings were drooped as I sensed him stop behind me.

"Another thing I've seen is that you are not disgusted at the thought of mingling with the inhabitants of this world. Your holoform seems to be like a 'second skin' to you, and you know quite a lot about this planet. I want to know _why_." The silver mech gripped my shoulders so hard that it was painful. I cringed and nearly buckled underneath it.

"W-why so suspicious, L-Lord M-M-Megatron?" I asked, stuttering.

"I want to know if you are hiding more than I think you are. So tell me, why do you like Earth so much?"

"Because," I whispered, "it's my home…"

…

_I lay stretched out on the grass, looking up at the sky. I was human and I was only seventeen._

_It was silent, I couldn't hear anything other than the wind, which lightly played with my chocolate brown bangs. There were black circles under my eyes because I hadn't got much sleep the night before. I was worried for my parents because they had been stranded in New York because of a snow storm. Even though I was angry at my mother because she had slapped me right before they had to leave, I still loved her—somewhat—and my father too. It was warmish here in Nevada, even though it was winter, so I was wearing only a t-shirt and some jeans._

_My eyes were only half open as I lazily watched the clouds make shapes. One looked like a heart and another looked like a horse._

_I heard footsteps and lifted my head. Jack walked up the path leading to the front door of my home, but stopped when he saw me. "Hey, Mikaela! What's up?" he asked._

_I sat up and looked at the raven-haired boy. "Hi, Jack," I smiled. "What are you up to today? Out for a walk it seems."_

"_Yeah, yeah," the boy smiled. "Just checking up to see if you're okay. You know how Mom is, she sees you as a second daughter."_

_I nodded. "Yep, and I'm glad. Makes me feel less alone, makes me feel more in touch with humanity."_

…

"You were _human_?!" Megatron roared.

I nodded my head firmly. "Yeah—and I'm the _same human_ that you ordered the Vehicon to terminate! And yet, I still follow your orders…" I growled.

Megatron began to laugh, and I took a step back in surprise. He continued to laugh and laugh and laugh, and it rang around inside my helm until I wanted to scream my spark out. But then he stopped suddenly. And he looked at me. I stilled, unsure about what he was going to do. I watched him silently as he seemed to scan me. What was he going to do?

* * *

**Dragonmaster789:** That's great! Thanks!

**Taboo22:** Thanks!

**SJSGirl: **Miko is okay, I kinda like her actually. She reminds me of my brother because they're both hyperactive. And she's free spirited, and I like that. So I'm a rare Miko-fan, I guess.

**markzilla6895:** In a few chapters. Just a few more. Or maybe I'll skip over the rest and mention the events of the episodes? I dunno.

**zrexheartz:** I know...


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